Eugene McDaniels, Writer of Roberta Flack's 'Feel Like Makin' Love,' Dead at 76

'Feel Like Makin' Love' singer Eugene McDaniels (Gene as he was often called) died Friday, July 29 at his home in Maine of an undisclosed illness, Brooklyn Vegan reports (via JS Online). He was 76 years old.

Besides his genre-spanning blues, ballad and jazz songs, McDaniels wrote and recorded several Top 10 hits during his career, including 1961's 'A Hundred Pounds of Clay' and 'Tower of Strength.'

The singer's website provides a fitting eulogy: "Gene is music: lyrical, complex, joyful, perceptive, political, romantic, multifaceted, melodious and magnificent. He is a man of great passion, countless musical personalities, an activist and a spiritualist, a patriot and a rebel, the singer and the song. He loved deeply and is deeply loved."

McDaniels also wrote Roberta Flack's huge 1974 hit single 'Feel Like Makin' Love' which has since been covered by numerous artists. His beats were often used as a source for early hip-hop pioneers, sampling his jazz melodies and drum sounds. Among those that took inspiration from the singer were A Tribe Called Quest, Beatnuts and De La Soul.

Listen to Eugene McDaniels' 'A Hundred Pounds of Clay'
Listen to 'Feel Like Makin' Love'