"You Are My Heaven" by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

Song#:  048
Date:  02/16/1980
Debut:  91
Peak:  47
Weeks:  11
Genre:  Pop, R&B



Pop Bits:  Flack and Hathaway recorded together several times during the 70s and scored Top 10 hits with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You." They released a full duets album in 1971 and won a vocal performance Grammy for "Where Is the Love." They began recording a second full duets album in 1979 and had two tracks done before Hathaway committed suicide. The tracks were included on the "Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway" album where she filled out the balance with solo material. This song, written by Stevie Wonder, was released and was the last recording Hathaway made.

ReduxReview:  This does sound like one of those breezy Stevie Wonder tunes he would write in about two minutes. Just kind of wistful and pleasing - nothing more than that. It sounds like something that was picked up out of a rejected Wonder song pile. Had Flack and Hathaway finished the complete album, I think this might have been relegated to an album cut. But due to the circumstances and sentiment in the song, this was probably seen as the proper choice for a single; albeit a bland one.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  Flack is only one of two artists who won back-to-back Grammys for Record of the Year. She did it in 1973 with "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and again in 1974 with "Killing Me Softly." The other artist who did this?  U2 in 2001 ("Beautiful Day") and 2002 ("Walk On").

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