| Everything Is Everything | ||||
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| Studio album by Donny Hathaway | ||||
| Released | July 1, 1970 | |||
| Recorded | September 11, 1969 – April 16, 1970 | |||
| Genre | Soul | |||
| Label | Atco | |||
| Producer | Donny Hathaway Ric Powell |
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| Donny Hathaway chronology | ||||
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Everything Is Everything is the first studio album by American soul artist Donny Hathaway, which was released on July 1, 1970 on the Atco label. The album was Hathaway's first release after being signed to Atlantic in 1969. Hathaway had already built a reputation early in his life, first as a gospel crooner as a child under the name Donny Pitts. After dropping out of Howard University in 1967, Hathaway moved to Chicago, his birthplace, and started working on music for Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records label where he was a songwriter, producer, arranger, composer, conductor and session player.
Everything Is Everything was produced by Hathaway and Ric Powell; Hathaway wrote or co-wrote five of the album's nine songs. After befriending Impressions lead singer Leroy Hutson, the duo composed the song that would eventually make it on his debut album titled "The Ghetto", which was mostly an instrumental except for Hathaway's vocal ad-libs and him singing the chorus. Hathaway and Hutson composed another socially conscious song titled "Trying Times". Other songs were split between covers (Ray Charles's "I Believe to My Soul" and Nina Simone's "To Be Young, Gifted and Black"), spiritual affairs ("Thank You Master for My Soul") and love songs ("Je Vous Aime (I Love You)").
Released in July 1970, the album peaked at #73 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and #33 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart.
Critics have since called Hathaway's debut his finest album. It would be one of four studio albums, including the soundtrack for Come Back, Charleston Blue, Hathaway released in his lifetime.
Bonus track on CD reissue