Feel Like Makin' Love (album)

Feel Like Makin' Love
Feel Like Makin' Love
Studio album by Roberta Flack
Released	March 1975
Recorded	1973–1974
Studio	Hit Factory (New York City); Bell Sound (New York City); Soundtek (New York City);
Genre	Jazz; soul; folk;
Length	46:34
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Rubina Flake
Roberta Flack chronology
Singles from Feel Like Makin' Love
	"Feel Like Makin' Love / When You Smile"; Released: August 14, 1974; "Feelin' That Glow / Some Gospel According to Matthew"; Released: May 17, 1975;

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[2]

"Feel Like Makin' Love"

Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love" from Feel Like Makin' Love

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Released in 1975, Feel Like Makin' Love is Roberta Flack's fifth solo album and sixth overall, when counting her duet album with Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway from 1972. It was the first album produced by Flack herself, under the pseudonym Rubina Flake.

The album's title cut had been issued as a single in June 1974 affording Flack her third #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, after which success Atlantic Records signed Flack to a new five-year contract - reportedly the most lucrative ever signed by a female recording artist. The Feel Like Makin' Love album had reportedly by September 1974 already accrued enough advance orders from retail outlets to guarantee gold status upon the album's release, which was expected in November 1974.^[3]

In fact, the album would not be ready for release until March 1975 having taken fourteen months to record. Although Flack had self-produced the "Feel Like Makin' Love" single, she had begun recording the album with her regular producer Joel Dorn: unhappy when Flack recruited "Feel Like Makin' Love" co-writer Gene McDaniels as an additional producer, Dorn had withdrawn from Flack's album (Dorn would, in fact, end his seven-year association with Atlantic Records) and after Flack and McDaniels proved unable to establish an agreeable working relationship Flack was left to produce her album alone.^[4]^[5]

Although Flack had worked closely with Joel Dorn in the recording of her previous albums the singer found the task of producing an entire album by herself an arduous challenge: (Roberta Flack quote:)"I made a lot of mistakes. It was a very hard time for me. There were days when I just cried and cried. But you press on. You press on."^[4] Upon the belated release of the Feel Like Makin' Love album Flack admitted that Atlantic Records were discontented with the time and expense spent on the album: (Roberta Flack quote:)"the [high price tag] is misleading. Some material I recorded will be used on my next two albums [which] I will be able to finish...very quickly and [cost efficiently]"^[5] - in fact Flack's next album: Blue Lights in the Basement, would not be ready for release until December 1977 - thirty-three months after the release of the Feel Like Makin' Love album. Despite its reported heavy advance orders, Feel Like Makin' Love would become Flack's first album to not be certified gold.

Track listing

Track No	Song title	Composer(s)	Time
1	"Feelin' That Glow"	Bob Fusco, Sister Charlotte Laws, Gene McDaniels, Maurice McKinley, Leon Pendarvis	5:48
2	"I Wanted It Too"	Ralph MacDonald, William Salter	2:51
3	"I Can See the Sun in Late December"	Stevie Wonder	12:48
4	"Some Gospel According to Matthew"	Stuart Scharf	2:37
5	"Feel Like Makin' Love"	Gene McDaniels	2:55
6	"Mister Magic"	Ralph MacDonald, William Salter	3:55
7	"Early Ev'ry Midnite"	Gene McDaniels, Leon Pendarvis	5:54
8	"Old Heartbreak Top Ten"	Gene McDaniels	4:22
9	"She's Not Blind"	Stuart Scharf	5:24

Personnel

Roberta Flack – lead and backing vocals, keyboards, arrangements (3, 5)
Bob James – keyboards
Leon Pendarvis – keyboards, arrangements (1, 5, 7, 8)
Richard Tee – keyboards
Harry Whitaker – keyboards, arrangements (3)
Keith Loving – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Hugh McCracken – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
David Spinozza – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Richie Resnicoff – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Stuart Scharf – fretted instruments, arrangements (4, 9)
Anthony Jackson – electric bass
Gary King – electric bass
Alphonse Mouzon – drums
Idris Muhammad – drums
Ronnie Zito – drums
David Carey – percussion, vibraphone
Ralph MacDonald – congas, percussion, arrangements (2, 6)
Phil Kraus – percussion, timpani
Arthur Jenkins – kalimba, arrangements (2)
James Vass – flute
Joe Farrell – oboe
Karen Sargent – oboe
Jo Armstead – backing vocals
Patti Austin – backing vocals
Betty Buckley – backing vocals
Bob Dorough – backing vocals
William Eaton – backing vocals, arrangements (2)
Janice Gadson – backing vocals
Lani Groves – backing vocals
Rhetta Hughes – backing vocals
Lesley Miller – backing vocals
William Salter – backing vocals, arrangements (2, 6)
Maeretha Stewart – backing vocals
Deniece Williams – backing vocals

Production

Roberta Flack – producer, album design
Leon Pendarvis – associate producer
Gene McDaniels – co-producer
Antisia Music, Inc. – co-producers
Scharf / Dorough, Ltd. – co-producers
Frederick Wilkerson – vocal production
Louise Fleming – production assistant
Jim McCurdy – engineer, remixing
Stephen Y. Scheaffer – engineer
John Struthers – assistant engineer
Harry Yamick – engineer
Lou Stovall – album design, cover artwork

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Breihan, Tom (May 29, 2019). "The Number Ones: Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love"". Stereogum. Retrieved June 19, 2023. The Feel Like Makin' Love album... [is] full of these gorgeous excursions that drew as much from folk and jazz as they did from the soul music...
^ Cook, Stephen (2011). "Feel Like Makin' Love - Roberta Flack | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
^ Fort Lauderdale News 21 September 1974 "Roberta Flack Does New Album: Bessie Smith film next" by Mary Campbell p.9B
^ ^a ^b High Fidelity May 1978 "Inevitably, Roberta Flack" by Leida White pp.121-124
^ ^a ^b Los Angeles Times 10 May 1978 "Roberta Flack Producing Her Own Albums" by Dennis Hunt pp.IV-1, IV-24 - IV-25