Making Love

Making Love: Roberta Flack and the 1982 Film Soundtrack Hit

Roberta Flack had already established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary soul and adult contemporary music long before "Making Love" appeared in 1982. Born on February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, Flack had trained as a classical pianist before transitioning to a singing career that produced some of the most enduring ballads of the 1970s. Her 1972 recording of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" had reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Her 1974 duet with Donny Hathaway, "Where Is the Love," had previously established her as a significant commercial presence. By the early 1980s, her position as a premier interpreter of sophisticated romantic material made her an ideal choice for a high-profile film tie-in.

The Film and Soundtrack Context

"Making Love" was recorded for the soundtrack of the 1982 film of the same name, a drama directed by Arthur Hiller that dealt with a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality. The film was significant in the history of mainstream Hollywood for its relatively frank and sympathetic treatment of its subject matter at a time when gay characters in major studio productions were rarely depicted with any complexity or dignity. The decision to anchor the film with a ballad by Roberta Flack was consistent with the adult-oriented prestige of the production and the marketability of the soundtrack to the adult contemporary radio audience that was Flack's primary constituency.

The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, one of the most commercially successful songwriting partnerships of the era. Bacharach, already legendary for his work with Hal David in the 1960s, had found a new creative partner in Sager, and their collaboration produced a series of major hits and film songs throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. Bacharach's distinctive harmonic language, characterized by unusual chord progressions and unexpected metric shifts, is present in "Making Love," though filtered through a production approach calibrated for early-1980s adult contemporary radio. The production was overseen to suit Flack's established sound, with lush orchestration providing a warm backdrop for her controlled, nuanced vocal performance.

Billboard Hot 100 Performance

"Making Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on March 6, 1982, debuting at number 80. The single climbed steadily over the following weeks, reflecting the pattern typical of adult contemporary ballads, which tended to rise slowly as radio programmers added them to their playlists and listeners grew familiar with the track. By the fifth week, the single had climbed to number 49. It continued ascending through the spring and into summer, eventually reaching its peak position of number 13 during the chart week of June 12, 1982. The track spent a total of 21 weeks on the Hot 100, a run that underscores the enduring appeal of the record across a full season of radio play.

Twenty-one weeks on the Hot 100 is a substantial chart run by any measure, indicating that "Making Love" was not merely a brief promotional splash but a record that maintained genuine listener interest well beyond its peak. The adult contemporary radio format, which was the single's primary broadcast home, favored longer chart runs because its audience was less driven by novelty than the pop mainstream and more committed to familiar, emotionally resonant material.

Adult Contemporary Chart Success

On the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, "Making Love" performed even more strongly than on the Hot 100. The adult contemporary chart tracked airplay at radio stations programming soft pop and quiet storm formats, and Flack was among the most consistently successful artists in that space during the 1970s and early 1980s. The single's strong performance there reflected the loyalty of her core audience and the suitability of the Bacharach-Sager composition to that format's preferences for emotional sophistication and melodic clarity.

Grammy Recognition

The song received Grammy Award consideration, consistent with the profile of a high-profile Bacharach-Sager production featuring one of the most decorated vocalists of the era. Roberta Flack's career had by this point generated multiple Grammy Awards, including wins for Record of the Year on two separate occasions, making her one of a very small group of artists to have achieved that distinction more than once. "Making Love" added to the late-career chapter of a recording history that had already secured her a permanent place in the pantheon of American popular vocalists.