A Song for You has been covered no less than seventeen times since it was written and released by Leon Russell for his first self-titled album in 1970.

Willie Nelson, Cher, Michael Bublé, Andy Williams, The Carpenters Donna Summer and Neil Diamond are just some of the artists who’ve added the song to album releases. Ray Charles won a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance of the song in 1994, and the version by Herbie Hancock with Christina Aguilera doing vocals was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

My favorite version is by jazz, blues, and soul singer Donny Hathaway, best known for his song, This Christmas, and for duets The Closer I Get To You and Where is the Love with Roberta Flack. Hathaway released A Song for You on his own self-titled second album in 1971.

At the height of his career, Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. On January 13, 1979, Hathaway’s body was found outside the luxury hotel Essex House in New York City; his death was ruled a suicide and such a heartbreaking loss for the music world.

Trivia:

• Donny Hathaway met Roberta Flack while a student at Howard University.
• Hathaway met his wife, Eulaulah, at Howard University and they married in 1967.
• They had two daughters, Eulaulah Donyll (Lalah) and Kenya.
• Lalah Hathaway has enjoyed a successful solo career.
• Kenya is a session singer and one of the three backing vocalists on the hit TV program American Idol.

A Song for You is a slow, pained plea for forgiveness and understanding from an estranged lover, and during the bridge he sings that while his lover held nothing back, he and his love were hiding.