Songfacts®:

• There was a lot of lovemaking going on in the '70s, and that was reflected in the music. "Feel Like Makin' Love" is one of the many songs from this time where a female singer makes her desires quite clear ("Touch Me In The Morning" by Diana Ross, "Do That to Me One More Time" by Captain & Tennille and "Right Time Of The Night" by Jennifer Warnes also come to mind). Throughout the song, Roberta Flack details all the times and places when she feels like making love to her man: In the park, in the morning, in a restaurant... the list goes on.
  
  The song was a little out of character for Flack, who grew up listening to gospel music and usually stayed away from songs that were clearly about sex. The way she delivered it, it comes off more sweet than lusty, which helped make the song a huge hit. In America, it went to #1 in August 1974 and also topped the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts.
• The song was written by Gene McDaniels, who had hits in 1961 with "A Hundred Pounds Of Clay" and "Tower Of Strength." In the late '60s he started writing for other artists, including Roberta Flack, who included his song "Compared To What" on her 1969 debut album, First Take.
  
  In the Billboard Book Of #1 Rhythm And Blues Hits, he said the title came from his assistant, Morgan Ames. She was spending a weekend with McDaniels and his family at a cabin at Lake Arrowhead, California. She got there on a Friday, and the next morning she packed up and left early. When McDaniels asked her why, she said, "Gotta get back to town. I feel like makin' love."
  
  McDaniels took that title and wrote the song in 25 minutes. He called Flack to tell her he had a #1 song written for her.
  
  "She said, 'What's the name?' I said, 'Feel Like Makin' Love' and she said, 'I'm on my way.'"
• "Feel Like Makin' Love" was the third and final #1 hit for Roberta Flack, whose previous chart toppers were "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in 1972 and "Killing Me Softly With His Song" in 1973. So yeah, that's three consecutive years with a #1 hit.
  
  Remarkably, Flack didn't start recording until she was in her 30s. Her talent was obvious from an early age, and she earned a music scholarship to Howard University when she was just 15. When she was there, she focused on music education, which is the degree she earned at 19. She went into teaching, then started singing in clubs. The musician Les McCann heard her singing at a benefit concert in 1968 and arranged an audition with Atlantic Records, which offered her a deal and released her first album a year later when she was 32.
• Out of necessity, Roberta Flack produced this song herself, along with the rest of her Feel Like Makin' Love album. Her longtime producer, Joel Dorn, abandoned the project in a dispute with Flack's label, Atlantic Records, so she took over. It was a challenge for Flack, who didn't know the technical or business end of producing, but she powered through it, taking about eight months to finish the album. She called it "One of my worst experiences."
  
  Flack, though, made history. The best we can tell, this song made her the first woman to produce a #1 hit solo. Her producer credit is listed as "Rubina Flake," a name she made up to indicate how she felt in the role.
• A year later, the rock band Bad Company released their own song called "Feel Like Makin' Love," which has a similar theme but is a lot louder.