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Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway
Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway
Studio album by Roberta Flack
Released	March 1980
Recorded	1979
Studio	Atlantic, New York City; RCA, New York City; Hit Factory, New York City; Power Station, New York City; Le Studio, Quebec, Canada; Crystal Sound, Hollywood;
Genre	R&B, soul, disco
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Roberta Flack, Eric Mercury, Arif Mardin, Joe Ferla
Roberta Flack chronology
Singles from Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway
	"You Are My Heaven / I'll Love You Forever and Ever"; Released: November 15, 1979; "Back Together Again / God Don't Like Ugly"; Released: February 17, 1980; "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long / Only Heaven Can Wait (For Love)"; Released: July 13, 1980;

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[2]

Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Roberta Flack. Released via Atlantic in March 1980, the album features posthumous vocals by close friend and collaborator Donny Hathaway, who had died in 1979. At the 23rd Grammy Awards in 1981, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The award, however, went to Stephanie Mills for "Never Knew Love Like This Before."

Overview

Intended as her second duets album with Donny Hathaway (following 1972's Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway), Flack's ninth studio album project became a Flack solo album with Hathaway as guest due to Hathaway's death after recording only two songs with her. On 13 January 1979 Hathaway and Flack had recorded the duets "Back Together Again" and "You Are My Heaven" - the latter the last song Hathaway would ever record: after having dinner with Flack at her residence in the Dakota, Hathaway had then returned to his suite on the fifteenth floor of Essex House, later fatally falling from the window of his suite.

Despite becoming the first Roberta Flack album since Quiet Fire (1971) to not yield a Top 40 hit, ...Featuring Donny Hathaway provided Flack with a substantial commercial comeback following the underperformance of her precedent 1978 self-titled album, with ...Featuring Donny Hathaway becoming a certified Gold album. Also both the duets on ...Featuring Donny Hathaway reached the R&B chart Top Ten peaking at #8, with "Back Together Again" reaching #3 in the UK: "Back Together Again" had been written by James Mtume and Reggie Lucas, members of Flack's back-up band who had previously written the 1978 Flack/ Hathaway hit "The Closer I Get to You", while "You Are My Heaven" was a Stevie Wonder co-write (with album producer Eric Mercury). Wonder also contributed the song "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long", providing the track's whispered rap: issued as a third single "Don't Make Me Wait..." was not a major mainstream hit, but issued on a 12" single with "Back Together Again" afforded Flack her first disco chart hit single with a #6 peak.

Flack has mentioned the track "Disguises" as being among her favorite lower-profile songs in her repertoire.^[3] ...Featuring Donny Hathaway was also the third consecutive Roberta Flack album on which she sang a composition by Michael Masser, who in 1983 would write (with Gerry Goffin) and produce "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" the million-selling Peabo Bryson duet which would be Flack's most successful post-1970s release.

In 2023, "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long", was reworked into a more electronic cover version, with Stevie Wonder being credited as an artist on this rendition, with vocals from Kimberly Brewer, and Joe.^[4]

Track listing

Side one

"Only Heaven Can Wait (For Love)" (Flack, Eric Mercury) – 4:03
"God Don't Like Ugly" (Gwen Guthrie) – 4:34
"You Are My Heaven" (Eric Mercury, Stevie Wonder) – 4:10
"Disguises" (Stuart Scharf) – 2:24

Side two

"Don't Make Me Wait Too Long" (Stevie Wonder) – 7:45
"Back Together Again" (Reggie Lucas, James Mtume) – 9:45
"Stay with Me" (Gerry Goffin, Michael Masser) – 3:47

Personnel

Roberta Flack – lead and backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, arrangements (1, 2, 4)
Donny Hathaway – lead vocals (3, 6)
Ray Chew – keyboards, additional horns and strings (6)
Hubert Eaves III – synthesizers
Ronnie Foster – synthesizers
Paul Griffin – keyboards
Raymond Jones – keyboards
Ed Walsh – synthesizers
Harry Whitaker – keyboards
Stevie Wonder – keyboards (6), drums (6), backing vocals (6)
Hiram Bullock – guitar
Reggie Lucas – guitar
Jeff Mironov – guitar
John Tropea – guitar
Eluriel "Tinker" Barfield – bass
Basil Fearrington – bass
Anthony Jackson – bass
Nathan Watts – bass (6)
Howard King – drums (1–5, 7)
Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion
Armando Noriega – string arrangements (1, 7)
Arif Mardin – basic track arrangements (3, 7)
Paul Riser – string arrangements (5)
James Mtume – arrangements (6)
Eric Mercury – backing vocals (1)
Jocelyn Brown – backing vocals (2, 6)
Gwen Guthrie – backing vocals (2, 6), BGV arrangements (2, 6)
Yvonne Lewis – backing vocals (2, 6)
Merle Miller – backing vocals (2, 6)
Luther Vandross – backing vocals (2, 6), BGV arrangements (2, 6)
Brenda White-King – backing vocals (2, 6)
Revelation – backing vocals (2, 6)
Eleanore Mills – backing vocals (3)

Production

Roberta Flack – producer (1, 2, 4–7), basic track producer (3), vocal producer (3)
Eric Mercury – producer (1, 2, 4–7)
Joe Ferla – co-producer (1, 4)
Arif Mardin – basic track producer (3), vocal producer (3)
Howie Lindeman – engineer
Joe Lopes – assistant engineer
Pat Martin – assistant engineer
Paul Northfield – assistant engineer
Gary Olazabal – assistant engineer
Bobby Warner – assistant engineer
Jack Adelman – mastering
Hélène Guertary – cover illustration