Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack – First Take (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (1969/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:13:26 minutes | 4,33 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

Earlier this year, Roberta Flack joined an illustrious circle of honorees as a 2020 recipient of the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Now the 1969 debut album that set the singer-pianist’s 50-year professional career in motion — First Take — is available again for a limited time.

First Take: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, released today (July 24, Rhino), comes packaged as a two-CD, one LP remastered set. The vinyl LP replicates the original Atlantic Records eight-track album — produced by Joel Dorn — which features “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

Flack’s first No. 1 pop and adult contemporary single topped those charts after Clint Eastwood tapped the song to appear in his 1971 film directorial debut, Play Misty for Me. The song later won Flack the first of two consecutive Grammy Awards for Record of the Year. She won the category again the following year for “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” whose imaginative cover by the Fugees became a huge hit for the hip-hop group in 1996.
Artist Mentioned

The first of the deluxe edition’s two CDs sports the original eight tracks plus three bonus cuts: single edits of the aforementioned hit and the Les McCann/Eddie Harris jazz classic “Compared to What” plus the song “Trade Winds.” However, the 12 previously unreleased demo recordings comprising the second CD further foretell the success to come.

Opening with a live version of Flack performing the Frank Sinatra standard “All the Way,” the CD spotlights a dauntless newcomer switching effortlessly as well between folk (“Frankie and Johnny“), jazz (“Afro Blue”), R&B (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”) and pop (“To Sir With Love”).

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Roberta Flack – First Take (1969/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 46:16 minutes | 1,94 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

First Take is Roberta Flack’s debut album and was released in 1969. The track “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” became a #1 hit in the US after being featured in Clint Eastwood’s film Play Misty for Me in 1971. After the song hit #1, the album also went to #1 on the U.S. album chart.

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Roberta Flack – Feel Like Makin’ Love (1975/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 46:38 minutes | 1,70 GB | Genre: R&B, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

Feel Like Makin’ Love is Roberta Flack’s fifth studio album and was originally released in 1975. It was produced by Roberta Flack under the pseudonym of Rubina Flake and featured the singles “Feel Like Makin’ Love / When You Smile” and “Feelin’ That Glow / Some Gospel According to Matthew”.

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Roberta Flack – Chapter Two (50th Anniversary Edition) (2021 Remaster) (1970/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:15 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

50 years ago this month, Roberta Flack released her sophomore album, an LP which – despite failing to match the crazy commercial success of her debut, FIRST TAKE, with mainstream audiences – still packed a solid emotional punch and served to cement her superstar status on the R&B and jazz charts.

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Roberta Flack – Blue Light In The Basement (1977/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:18 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

Blue Lights in the Basement is the sixth studio album by American singer Roberta Flack released by Atlantic on December 13, 1977. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number eight on the US Billboard 200, becoming her third consecutive top-ten album on the chart and reaching number five on the R&B albums chart. The album features the single “The Closer I Get to You”, a duet with best friend and fellow soul musician Donny Hathaway, which became the biggest hit from the album, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reaching #1 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. The collaboration with Hathaway would be one of his final singles released in his lifetime before his death in 1979.

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Roberta Flack – Bustin’ Loose (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1981/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:47 minutes | 985 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

Bustin’ Loose is a soundtrack album released by Roberta Flack in 1981. It was recorded for the movie of the same title starring Richard Pryor. Luther Vandross and Peabo Bryson contributed vocals to the album and Vandross wrote the song, “You Stopped Loving Me”, which he later performed himself on his debut album Never Too Much.
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Roberta Flack – Quiet Fire (1971/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz  | Time – 42:21 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Booklet, Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

Quiet Fire is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Roberta Flack, released in November 1971 by Atlantic Records. It was recorded at Atlantic Recording Studios, Regent Studios, and The Hit Factory in New York City. The album peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape, and its single “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” charted at number 76 on the Hot 100.

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Roberta Flack – I’m The One (1982/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz  | Time – 35:25 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

“I’m the One” is an album by Roberta Flack released in May 1982 which reached #59 on the album chart in Billboard whose R&B album chart afforded the album a #16 peak. The Burt Bacharach/Carole Bayer Sager-produced “Making Love”, which appeared in the film of the same name and in the spring of 1982 had afforded Flack her final solo Top 40 hit.

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