21 Facts About Donny Hathaway

Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who Rolling Stone described as a "soul legend".

Donny Hathaway has been inducted into the St Louis Walk of Fame and won one Grammy Award from four nominations.

Donny Hathaway was posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

Donny Hathaway, the son of Drusella Huntley, was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised by his grandmother, Martha Pitts, known as Martha Crumwell, in the Carr Square housing project of St Louis, Missouri.

Donny Hathaway began singing in the church choir with his grandmother, a professional gospel singer, at the age of three, and studying piano.

Donny Hathaway then studied music on a fine arts scholarship at Howard University in Washington, DC, where he met Roberta Flack.

Hathaway formed a jazz trio with drummer Ric Powell while there, but during 1967 Donny left Howard just before completing a degree, after receiving job offers in the music business.

Donny Hathaway recorded his first single under his own name in 1969, a duet with singer June Conquest called "I Thank You, Baby".

Former Cleveland Browns president Bill Futterer, who as a college student promoted Curtom in the southeast in 1968 and 1969, was befriended by Donny Hathaway and has cited Donny Hathaway's influence on his later projects.

Donny Hathaway was the co-composer and performer of the Christmas standard, "This Christmas".

Donny Hathaway followed this flurry of work with contributions to soundtracks, along with his recording of the theme song to the TV series Maude.

Donny Hathaway composed and conducted music for the 1972 soundtrack of the movie Come Back Charleston Blue.

Donny Hathaway returned to the charts in 1978 after again teaming up with Roberta Flack for a duet, "The Closer I Get to You" on her album, Blue Lights in the Basement.

Donny Hathaway literally sat in the studio and cried when he heard the playback of his final mix.

At one point, Donny Hathaway was prescribed fourteen different medications that he was to take twice a day.

However, Eulaulah Donny Hathaway has said that her father became less than diligent about following his prescription regimen when he began feeling better and often stopped taking his medications altogether.

Flack and Donny Hathaway then resumed studio recording to compose a second album of duets.

Each reported that although Donny Hathaway was singing fine, he began behaving irrationally, seeming to be paranoid and delusional.

Hours later, Donny Hathaway was found dead on the pavement below the window of his 15th-floor room in New York City's Essex House hotel.

The glass had been neatly removed from the window and there were no signs of a struggle, leading investigators to rule that Donny Hathaway's death was a suicide.

Donny Hathaway was named the 49th-greatest singer of all time in a 2010 list published by Rolling Stone.