It is wonderful to open the month of October with a celebration. Oct. 1 is the date of birth of one of our most memorable soul singers, songwriters, and arrangers: Grammy Award-winning Donny Edward Hathaway.
Though we lost him in 1979, the impact of Hathaway’s music is everlasting.
Join me in celebrating his memory and his music today!
”Black Music Sunday” is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music. With nearly 180 stories (and counting) covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack, I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
Carol Brennan wrote his biography for Musician Guide:
Hathaway was born in Chicago on October 1, 1945, but spent much of his childhood in St. Louis, where he lived in the Carr Square public housing project with his grandmother, Martha Pitts, who also went by the name Martha Crumwell. Pitts was a professional gospel singer, and Hathaway spent a disproportionate amount of time in church, watching her rehearse and perform. One day when he was just three years old, Hathaway was sitting in a pew alongside his mother, who recalled that her son was more than a bit fidgety that day. She asked him what the problem was, and he replied, "I want to go up there and sing with grandma," Drusella Huntley told Ebony. She told him, "'Go ahead.' The first song he ever sang was 'How Much I Owe, Love Divine,'" Huntley remembered. "He couldn't even pronounce the words properly, but he could follow the tune and melody."
Hathaway soon began singing professionally as "Donny Pitts, The Nation's Youngest Gospel Singer." He also played the ukulele on stage, studied the piano, and as a child was fascinated by glitzy keyboard virtuoso Liberace. At St. Louis's Vashon High School, he quickly made a name for himself as a piano prodigy. Backed by the support of his teachers, Hathaway earned a fine-arts scholarship to Howard University and entered in 1964. His professors at Howard recognized Hathaway's talent and provided ample encouragement. During his time at Howard, he met both his future wife, Eulaulah, and recording artist Roberta Flack. Hathaway would leave Howard without his degree after three years of study; he had begun to receive lucrative job offers, in part because of his membership in a group called the Rick Powell Trio.
One of the fascinating things about Howard University during the years he was there was the wealth of future talent present in the school of fine arts, including the Allen sisters (Debbie and Phylicia) and Jessye Norman, to name a few of my fellow students. I have memories of another vocal group that was there that Hathaway had an impact on—The Unifics.
In 1966 a group of talented students at Washington D.C.’s Howard University in 1966 formed the upstart group Al & the Vikings. Consisting of singer/songwriter Al Johnson, Tom Fauntleroy, Marvin Brown, Bob Hayes, and George Roland, the group changed its name during its first year to the Unique Five and later to the Unifics. Known for their smooth harmonies and their dapper attire (including their trademark white gloves), the Unifics soon gathered a large following in the D.C.
He arranged “Court of Love” and “The Beginning of My End” for the group.
Musician Guide Bio continued:
While at Howard, Hathaway achieved early success in the recording industry by working as a producer and arranger for several acts, including Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers. He also produced artists for Chess and Stax Records, and served as the band director for the Impressions, a group fronted by another Howard classmate, Leroy Hunter. In 1969, Hathaway teamed with a singer named June Conquest and recorded the single "I Thank You" for Curtis Mayfield's label and sang backup with the Mayfield Singers. Signed by Atlantic Records in 1969, Hathaway's first single, "The Ghetto, Part I," was released in late October and peaked on the R&B charts at number 23 the following January. The heartbreaking, mournful tale of inner-city misery quickly established Hathaway as a talented singer/songwriter with a deep debt to his gospel roots. His obituary in Rolling Stone would later note that the song "marked him as a major new force in soul music."Roberta Flack had already graduated from Howard and was playing gigs in DC.
Here’s that duet with June Conquest:
Hathaway didn’t leave his gospel roots behind. He recorded “Thank You Master For My Soul” on his 1970 debut album, “Everything is Everything.” All Music Reviewer John Bush writes:
"Thank You Master (For My Soul)" brings the Stax horns onto sanctified ground, while Hathaway praises God and sneaks in an excellent piano solo. Everything Is Everything was one of the first soul records to comment directly on an unstable period; "Tryin' Times" speaks to the importance of peace and community with an earthy groove, while the most familiar track here, a swinging jam known as "The Ghetto," places listeners right in the middle of urban America.
I can remember the first time I heard him perform “The Ghetto,” which struck a chord with so many of us during a period of unrest and uprisings across the country.
RELATED STORY: Black Music Sunday: 1967's long, hot summer of rebellion
RELATED STORY: Roberta Flack's musical gift to us has spanned more than 5 decades
“I remember going to hear Flack play at Mr. Henry’s along with other students from the Howard Fine Arts Department; among them was Donny Hathaway, with whom Flack would record a hit duet album in 1972.”
On May 5, 2022, Brandon Ousley wrote this article for Albumism:
Flack & Donny Hathaway’s Eponymous Duet Album Turns 50 | Anniversary Retrospective
The inspiration behind the two uniting to cut a duet album came from the most unlikely of places. During a performance at a Washington, D.C. club called Mr. Henry’s, Flack sang Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” which became an immediate pop staple when it first came out in 1971. Producer Jerry Wexler was in attendance. Stunned by her reading of the song that night, Wexler suggested to Flack that she and Hathaway should record the song and possibly an entire album, as it could consolidate their popularity. Flack eventually gave in to the suggestion and the rest was history. As their arresting folk-soul cover of “You’ve Got a Friend” (US pop #29, R&B #8) hit the charts the same day James Taylor’s version did, Flack and Hathaway began recording their album of duets.
The pairing’s resulting album, 1972’s Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, is a graceful portrait of two masters creating musical bliss with understated sophistication and glowing intimacy. In assessing the hallmarks that define the essence of R&B, classic duet pairings stand at the forefront of them all. From Gaye & Terrell to René Moore & Àngela Winbush, the union between a male and female depicting black romanticism through song is a spine-tingling experience whenever one hears it. The exquisite moment the two share when they eloquently sing together embodies a universe of true love—from its exhilarating highs to devastating lows. They sing on love like they know it all too well, and realistically, they do because they’ve lived it. In fact, the stirring conviction and vulnerability in their vocal approaches leads one to believe that they are an item themselves. Their boundless chemistry is too rich and timeless to ignore, just as love itself.
In every way, Flack and Hathaway epitomized the very essence of black love, right at the height of the Black Power movement. For them, love was more than a spiritual and romantic force that lingers throughout mankind. It was a political emblem that solidified the strength and vibrancy of the black experience.
Here’s “Where is the Love” from the album:
This is 1972 TV footage from the “Double Exposure” concert they did:
Video notes:
This documentary (filmed in 1972) was televised on August 10, 1976 on ABC-TV. Never released on home video. Presented for historical reference
That same year, Hathaway sang the “Maude” TV show theme song, “And Then There’s Maude,” written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
In 1972, Hathaway also composed the music for the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation film “Comeback Charleston Blue.”
In 1973, Hathaway recorded the album “Extension of A Man,” and I want to address one very special and meaningful song from that album.
Music educator and bassist Paul Thompson talks about and illustrates why he believes “Someday We’ll All Be Free” is Hathaway’s greatest song.
Video Notes:
Breaking down Donny Hathaway's masterpiece from 1973's EXTENSION OF A MAN (Atco): "Someday We'll All Be Free" (lyrics by Edward Howard) and why it's his greatest song. I'll analyze the music, dig into the lyrics, examine some individual performances on the track (including Marvin Stamm on trumpet and Willie Weeks on bass), and talk about some of the amazing techniques Donny used to make this a perfect song! Let's celebrate the genius of Donny Hathaway on the 50th anniversary of this timeless anthem.
Lyrics:
Hang on to the world as it spins around
Just don't let the spin get you down
Things are moving fast
Hold on tight and you will last
Keep your self respect, your manly pride
Get yourself in gear
Keep your stride
Never mind your fears
Brighter days will soon be here
Take it from me, someday we'll all be free, yeah
Keep on walking tall
Hold your head up high
Lay your dreams right up to the sky
Sing your greatest song
And you'll keep going, going on
Take it from me, someday we'll all be free
Hey, just wait and see, some day we'll all be free, yeah
Take it from me, someday we'll all be free
It won't be long, take it from me, someday we'll all be free
Take it from me, take it from me, take it from me
The GentleBear blogger wrote:
Edward Howard, the lyricist of “Someday We’ll all Be Free” said that he wrote the words for and about Donny, who was experiencing depression and probably undiagnosed schizophrenia. Howard said: “What was going through my mind at the time was Donny, because Donny was a very troubled person. I hoped that at some point he would be released from all that he was going through. There was nothing I could do but write something that might be encouraging for him.” The lyrics begin, “Hang on to the world as it spins around/ Just don’t let the spin get you down.”
I play this song each year on my younger brother Jordy’s birthday. He was schizophrenic and committed suicide in April 1977, jumping off of the Empire State Building. Hathaway’s death, which was said to have been a suicide, took place on Jan. 18, 1979.
His youngest daughter, Donnita Hathaway, founded the The Donny Hathaway Legacy Project, Inc. to address mental health and healing in our communities.
It is the mission of The Donny Hathaway Legacy Project, Inc. (DHLP) to provide holistic mental and emotional health-related education, advocacy and essential resources that are culturally relevant and accessible to support creative artists, Black communities and young people.
Though Howard was inspired to write the song to address Hathaway’s mental health issues, the song has become a civil rights anthem, and has been covered by a long list of artists.
Here’s Hathaway’s daughter Lalah’s version with Take 6:
Many people know the song from hearing Aretha Franklin’s powerful rendition in Spike Lee’s 1992 “Malcolm X” film:
On June 15, 2023 Brandon Ousley wrote:
Donny Hathaway’s ‘Extension of a Man’ Turns 50 | Albumism Anniversary
With one listen to his third and final studio album, 1973’s Extension of a Man, there’s little doubt that Hathaway was in the midst of an envelope-pushing space, deepening every fiber of his reach and groove. Even its hefty title suggests exacting ambition, as Hathaway implies in the album’s copious liner notes that he is “in the process of expanding and developing styles.” A year before, he scored the eclectic soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Come Back Charleston Blue (1972), brimming with many new stylistic turns.
Where his first two epochal albums—1970’s Everything is Everything and 1971’s Donny Hathaway—capture the innate gospel impulses that were tremendous hallmarks in his ubiquitous sound, Extension broadens those sensibilities and luxuriantly welds them into a chameleonic canvas of stylistic variation and depth. The bold versatility presented throughout the album demonstrates Hathaway’s goal of widening the traditional modes of black music, while challenging its pioneers, tastemakers, and audiences to move it into foreign, explorative spaces.
Very often, Hathaway studied the work of renowned classical composers, such as Maurice Revel, Claude Debussy, Ivor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and George Gershwin. He also cited them as primary influences of what he aspired to muster as a black composer. Reaching boundless extremes most mainstream soul albums of its era or since then haven’t dared to venture, Extension opens with an orchestral overture, “I Love the Lord; He Heard My Cry (Parts I & II).” Masterful in its execution and uncharacteristically cinematic in nature, “Lord” is a spiritual tone poem with deep religious undertones (hence the title and the hymn it’s inspired by). It also showcases Hathaway’s stunning prowess as a composer and arranger, melding impressionistic tonalities with emotional timbres from the Romantic period.
The full album:
A year after Hathaway’s death, The Whispers dedicated a song to him.
One of R&B music's most beloved and consistently popular vocal groups, The Whispers, began their legendary and timeless career in 1963. Twin brothers Walter and Wallace Scott joined with friends Nicholas Caldwell, Marcus Hutson, and Gordy Harmon to form a local singing group. They perfected their tight harmonies on the street corners in the Watts section of Los Angeles and in nightclubs in the in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area.
[...]
Their first platinum album "The Whispers" (1980) highlighted "A Song For Donny," a song written by Carrie Lucas in memory of Donny Hathaway, and their biggest hit "And The Beat Goes On." It was their most successful selling album (double platinum)
Lyrics:
People speak your name
And think what a shame you're gone
Still they know
What you've left behind
Lives in our hearts and minds
Today and tomorrow
The clouds of darkness came your way
You've given us a brighter day
And your music will be
So very, very special to me
Sometimes wealth and fame
Whispered, "Play my game"
But you, yes, you refused to
Genius touched your soul
Fortune not your gold
God's gift is what changed you
A voice like silk would weave your spell
And words of life, oh, only you tell
And your music is gonna be
Very, very special to me
In life's fleeting glance
You have met the chance to give
All they can't
And though short you stayed
Before you went away with them
Now you stand
Listening to your sounds of joy
I think one shot, ghetto boy
And your music will always be
So very, very special to me
Said I love you, Donny
And you're gonna always be
Very, very, very special to me
Gonna miss one shot, little ghetto boy
This is a song for you
Said I love you, Donny, and I miss you, Donny
You're gonna always be a friend to me
Miss you, Donny
Yeah, I miss you, Donny
We miss you, Donny.
Please join me in the comments section below for more of his music.