50 years ago today, October 1, 1972 had to have been the very best birthday of the short life of singer, songwriter, musician and producer Donny Hathaway (1945-1979). That spring, he and his old college friend Roberta Flack released their #3 charting LP Robert Flack and Donny Hathaway, with its hit single "Where is the Love" (which went to #5), AND he sang the irresistible theme song to the sitcom Maude, a flawless performance that you won't be able to get out of your head today now that I've mentioned it. That year, his critically-lauded solo LP Live went to #18 in the charts, making it his most successful solo album. AND he appeared on the TV variety shows of Johnny Carson, Flip Wilson, and Bill Cosby. All in 1972.
These weren't his only successes, just the peak. Born in Chicago, raised in St. Louis, Hathaway sang in church choirs and attended historically black Howard University before getting a staff job at Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records. There he worked with the likes of the Staples Singers, Aretha Franklin and The Impressions. His first record as a solo artist Everything is Everything was released in 1970. All of his records of the '70s cracked the top 100, but he did best in collaboration with Flack. Their biggest hit together was "The Closer I Get to You" which went all the way to #2 in 1978. Hathway's best known solo song has become "This Christmas", recorded in 1970, but not adapted into the annual holiday playlist repertoire until a few decades later.
By then, sadly Hathaway was long gone. He'd been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1971, and had been on an intense battery of medications. As often happens, he frequently went off his meds, and was hospitalized numerous times throughout the decade. Then, without warning, in early 1979, he leapt out a 15th story window in New York's Essex House Hotel. He was only 33. Jesse Jackson delivered the eulogy at his memorial. Today he is remembered by critics and fans as one of the principal soul artists of his era.
For more on show business history past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous -- and please stay tuned for Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety coming your way soon!
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