Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway paired a gospel-trained, classically schooled voice with jazz-and-soul arranging chops that made his brief run of early-1970s albums — Everything Is Everything, Donny Hathaway, and his duets with Roberta Flack — into a cornerstone of what later became neo-soul. Raised singing in his grandmother's church choir before studying composition at Howard University, he wrote and arranged with an orchestral ear rarely heard on soul records of the era. He died in 1979 at thirty-three, but his catalog, especially the holiday standard 'This Christmas,' remains in constant rotation.
Critics have described Hathaway's vocal style as echoing 'the soulful expressiveness of Ray Charles,' the gospel-into-R&B blueprint Charles pioneered two decades earlier and that Hathaway's own piano-and-voice recordings draw on directly.
listen forPlay Charles's testifying 'What'd I Say' next to Hathaway's 'Little Ghetto Boy' — both turn a churchy call-and-response piano vamp into something that sounds like a congregation answering back.
Writers tracing Hathaway's musical lineage place him within a tradition established by gospel-schooled soul interpreters like Sam Cooke, whose effortless, pop-facing warmth is an audible touchstone whenever Hathaway leans into a plainer, more conversational vocal.
listen forPlay Cooke's silky 'You Send Me' next to Hathaway's reading of 'A Song for You' — both make a wide, technically demanding vocal sound completely unforced, like the singer is barely trying.
The same tradition of non-songwriting soul interpreters that shaped Hathaway is often traced through Jackie Wilson, whose gospel-powered vocal runs set a standard for the showmanship Hathaway channels into his own extended, semi-improvised vocal ad-libs.
listen forPlay Wilson's leaping '(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher' next to Hathaway's 'The Ghetto' — both push a plain melodic phrase higher with each repetition until the vocal itself becomes the hook.