In 1972, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway—longtime friends since their days at Howard University—teamed up to record an album of duets that included the Grammy-winning hit “Where Is the Love.” Five years later, the pair reunited for another collaboration: a tender, uplifting song about two people falling in love.
Interestingly, the track was not originally intended as a duet. It was written by Reggie Lucas and James Mtume, members of Flack’s touring band who also performed on her album Blue Lights in the Basement. The two composed the song between tours and later presented it to Flack’s producer, Joe Ferla, during the album sessions. Ferla played it for Flack, and her manager, David Franklin—who also managed Hathaway—suggested turning the song into a duet by bringing him in.
At the time, Hathaway was struggling with severe depression and had not collaborated with Flack in several years. He was actually hospitalized when the invitation came, and special permission had to be granted for him to leave the hospital and participate in the recording sessions. Tragically, just two years later, in 1979, Donny Hathaway died in what was ruled an apparent suicide.
