Artist: Donny Hathaway
Genre(s):
Other
R&B: Soul
Discography:
These Songs For You, Live!
Year: 2004
Tracks: 14
Free Soul
Year: 2000
Tracks: 16
Everything Is Everything
Year: 1995
Tracks: 10
Live
Year: 1994
Tracks: 8
A Donny Hathaway Collection
Year: 1990
Tracks: 15
Donny Hathaway was i of the brightest unexampled voices in soul music at the cockcrow of the '70s, berserk of a smooth, gospel-inflected romantic croon that was besides at home on perfervid dissent material. Hathaway achieved his greatest commercial success as Roberta Flack's pas de deux spouse of choice, but unhappily he's evenly remembered for the tragic circumstances of his death -- an plain suicide at historic period 33. Hathaway was natural October 1, 1945, in Chicago, simply touched to St. Louis when he was very young, and began singing in christian church with his gran at the skimp age of 3. He began playing piano at a danton True Young long time, and by high school, he was telling sufficiency to gain a full-ride fine humanities scholarship to Howard University to study music in 1964. While in college, he performed with a cocktail malarky getup called the Ric Powell Trio, and lesion up going away school day afterward ternary years to follow job opportunities he was already organism offered in the record industry.
Anne Hathaway first worked behindhand the scenes as a manufacturer, transcriber, songster, and seance pianist/keyboardist. He supported the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, and the Staple Singers, among many others, and linked the Mayfield Singers, a studio financial support group that supported Curtis Mayfield's Impressions. Hathaway before long became a house manufacturer at Mayfield's Curtom label, and in 1969 cut his first single, a duo with June Conquest called "I Thank You Baby." From in that respect he signed with Atco as a solo artist, and released his debut single, the inner city plaint "The Ghetto, Pt. 1," toward the terminal of the class. While it failed to hand the Top 20 on the R&B charts, "The Ghetto" noneffervescent ranks as a classic someone message track, and has been sampled by numerous rap music artists. "The Ghetto" countersink the stage for Hathaway's acclaimed debut LP, Everything Is Everything, which was released in early 1970. In 1971, he released his eponymous second album and recorded a duet with previous Howard schoolmate Roberta Flack, covering James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend." It was a significant strike, reaching the Top Ten on the R&B charts, and sparked a full album of duets, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, which was released in 1972. The subdued, amatory ballad "Where Is the Love?" topped the R&B charts, went Top Five on the pop side, and north Korean won a Grammy, and the consequent album went gold.
As well in 1972, Hathaway biramous out into soundtrack ferment, transcription the paper song for the TV series Maude and marking the film Come Back Charleston Blue. However, in the thick of his blossoming success, he was as well battling life-threatening bouts of depression, which occasionally needed him to be hospitalized. His mood swings also affected his partnership with Flack, which began to break down in 1973. Hathaway released 1 more album that year, the ambitious Reference of a Man, and so retreated from the spotlight; over the side by side few years, he performed only if in small clubs. In 1977, Hathaway patched things up with Flack and temporarily left field the hospital to record some other duet, "The Closer I Get to You," for her Blue Lights in the Basement record album. The vocal was a smash, becoming the pair's second R&B number one in 1978, and too climb to identification number 2 on the pop charts. Sessions for a second album of duets were afoot when, on January 13, 1979, Hathaway was set up dead on the sidewalk below the 15th-floor window of his room in New York's Essex House. The glass had been neatly distant from the window, and on that point were no signs of shin, leading investigators to dominion Hathaway's end a suicide; his friends were metagrobolised, considering that his career had barely started to pick up once again, and Flack was devastated. Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway was released in 1980, and both of the completed duets -- "Back Together Again" and "You Are My Heaven" -- became posthumous hits. In 1990, Hathaway's girl Lalah launched a solo career.
