Donny Hathaway - I Believe To My Soul | Soul Sunday

Опубликовано 19 октября 2025, 4:00

*Donny Hathaway,* as multitalented and ambitious as any pop musician of the post-WW II era, collected kudos for his skills and creativity at lead, duet, and backup singing, keyboard playing, songwriting, and arranging. Born in Chicago in 1945, he grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where his grandmother, a professional gospel singer, raised him. Under her tutelage and going by the stage name Donny Pitts, he performed in church. Matriculating at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University on a fine arts scholarship in 1963, Hathaway roomed with drummer Ric Powell and joined his eponymous trio. The pair left Howard short of graduation to hire on at Chicago’s Curtom Records, founded by Curtis Mayfield of Impressions fame. At Curtom, Hathaway emerged as a jack of all musical trades well-connected to the era’s hitmakers. In 1969, in a move facilitated by artist/producer King Curtis, he signed with Atco Records. He and another Howard roommate, Leroy Hutson, wrote “The Ghetto, Part I,” released as a single and later included on his Atco debut LP, the now-classic Everything Is Everything. He broadened his fandom singing behind fellow Howard alum and label mate Roberta Flack on her cover of “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” His 1971 LP Donny Hathaway further advanced his reputation. For a third Atco LP, Hathaway teamed with Flack on Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, an LP of duets whose ranks yielded a massive hit single in “Where Is The Love.” In 1978 the pair returned to the charts with “The Closer I Get To You.” Hathaway and Flack were working on a second collection of duets when Hathaway, who had recorded two tracks toward the project despite being waylaid by mental illness, took his own life on January 13, 1979. He was 33. Flack posthumously released Robert Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway.

Donny Hathaway - I Believe To My Soul
Album: Everything is Everything
Album released July 1, 1970 on Atlantic

_Written By: Ray Charles

_Performed By:_

Donny Hathaway -- all vocals
King Curtis -- guitar
Phil Upchurch – bass
John Littlejohn – guitar, vocals
John Avant – trombone
Johnny Board – tenor saxophone
Lenard Druss – tenor saxophone
Oscar Brashear – trumpet
Clifford P. Davis – alto saxophone
Aaron Dodd – tuba
Morris Ellis – trombone
Willie Henderson – baritone saxophone
John Howell – trumpet
Morris Jennings – drums
Robert A. Lewis – trumpet
Cyril Touff – bass trumpet
John Lounsberry – French horn
Ethel Merker – French horn
Paul A. Teryett – French horn
Don Myrick – alto saxophone
Ric Powell – percussion
Louis Satterfield – bass

_Produced By:_

Donny Hathaway, Ric Powell

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