Donny Hathaway
1945 — 1979 · Singer, songwriter, pianist and arranger; principal architect of the early-1970s soul ballad and one of the great male vocal stylists of his generation
Donny Edward Hathaway was born on the first of October 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Drusella Huntley. While still very young he was taken to St. Louis, Missouri, and raised by his grandmother, Martha Pitts — also known as Martha Crumwell — a professional gospel singer, in the Carr Square housing project. It was in the church, at her side, that his gift first sounded.
A prodigy from the start, he sang and played piano professionally as a small child, billed as "Donny Pitts, The Nation's Youngest Gospel Singer" — a stage name drawn from his grandmother, though his own name was always Hathaway. On a fine-arts scholarship he entered Howard University to study music theory, where his talent as pianist, arranger, and singer marked him out among his peers.
Leaving Howard for the working world of music, Hathaway wrote, arranged, and produced before stepping to the front himself. His 1970 debut and the albums that followed — and above all his luminous duets with Roberta Flack, including "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You" — made him a defining architect of the early-1970s soul ballad. His "This Christmas" became an enduring standard, and "A Song for You" a testament of feeling.
His life ended in New York City on the thirteenth of January 1979. He left behind a body of song of rare tenderness and craft — a voice that carried both ache and grace, honored still by every artist who reaches for the warmth he made his own.
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