About The Song
Where Is the Love by Roberta Flack (with Three Dog Night) is best known as the smooth 1972 hit she recorded with Donny Hathaway, but it gained an extra layer of warmth in a memorable one-night television team-up with Three Dog Night. The original version, written by percussionist Ralph MacDonald and bassist William Salter, came out in June 1972 as a single from the duo album Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway on Atlantic. It climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, spent a week at No. 1 on both the Easy Listening and R&B charts, and ended the year ranked No. 58 overall by Billboard. The track also earned a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
MacDonald and Salter originally hoped The 5th Dimension would cut it, but once Flack and Hathaway brought it to life, the song’s quiet ache about loving someone who loves someone else connected instantly. The pair delivered it with the kind of intimate, conversational feel that defined so much of their work together—two old friends trading lines like they were talking across a late-night kitchen table. It became one of the defining soul-pop duets of the era, helping set the template for elegant, grown-up love songs that didn’t need to shout to be felt.
In 1972 or early 1973, Roberta joined Three Dog Night for a television special called Three Dog Night… Night on ABC. She stepped in front of the microphone for “Where Is the Love,” with Cory Wells, Danny Hutton, and Chuck Negron adding their signature layered harmonies behind her. Fans who caught the broadcast still talk about how naturally it worked—the soulful precision of Flack blending with the band’s warm, big-voiced California sound. It was never released as an official studio single or album track, but bootlegs and clips of that performance have circulated for decades, giving the song a second, slightly looser life.
The number has shown up on various Flack compilations over the years and continues to surface in playlists as a gentle reminder of early-’70s sophistication. For a song that started as a hopeful pitch to another group, it found its perfect home with Flack and Hathaway, then got an unexpected encore with Three Dog Night’s harmonies under the TV lights.