Harlepolis said:

I feel you!! But there's not much we can do about it, except possibly write some letters and emails. I've heard rumors of a Donny box set since the mid 1990s, so i understand your frustration. Around 2002, was when reports went out that it was going to be released. His daughter Lalah even received an advanced copy in April 2003 so anticipation was high. As I mentioned before, the Anthology was 2 cds with 35 songs including hits, demos/outakes and live cuts. Most of the previously unreleased live material that was scheduled for the Anthology
will be released on the new release, "These Songs For You Live" on June 8, 2004. That's the good news. The bad news is that if this cd is released we probably won't see the Anthology anytime soon.
Now let me say, that the story about the Donny Hathaway Anthology being shelved because of issues concerning Roberta Flack's involvement are basically rumors at this point. This info has not been and probably won't be confirmed by the powers that be. The bottom line is that if you're going to do a definitive anthology on Donny, YOU MUST HAVE ROBERTA involved. She was too important in his career to leave out. It's like telling the Chaka Khan story and leaving out the Rufus beginnings. You just can't do it.
The bottom line is that the Anthology isn't coming out any time soon and that's a hard fact of life that we have to get used to. On the positive side, you can get most of the hits and you'll be getting the live stuff on June 8. There were about 4 new songs on the Anthology,one of which is called "Extension Of A Man", so the public will miss certain tunes but thankfully most of he material willbe available.

Photo (source unknown): Arif Mardin (Producer) & Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway has to be one of the very greats. Nice to see other appreciating him here.

infinitetrio said:

Picture taken during sessions for Aretha Franklin's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Until You Come Back To Me, That's What I'm Going To Do" in 1974