December 2, 2022 —– Chart #172
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. We are in the early 70’s this week with a song that has been recorded by numerous artists, but I’ll bet you don’t know who was the first. “Killing Me Softly with His Song” is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The lyrics were written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman after she was inspired by a Don McLean performance in late 1971. Denied writing credit by Fox and Gimbel, Lieberman released her version of the song in 1972, but it did not chart.
In 1973 it became a number-one hit in the United States, Australia and Canada for Roberta Flack, and also reached number six in the UK Singles Chart. In 1996, Fugees recorded the song with Lauryn Hill on lead vocals, their version became a number-one hit in twenty countries. The version by Flack won the 1974 Grammy for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and the version by Fugees won the 1997 Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Propelled by the success of the Fugees track, the 1972 recording by Roberta Flack was remixed in 1996 by Jonathan Peters, with Flack adding some new vocal flourishes; this version topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Since then, Flack and Fugees have performed the song together. The versions by the Fugees and Roberta Flack were both placed on the 2021 revised list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The story of how this song cam about is very good. Aspiring musician Lori Lieberman was 19 years old in 1971 when she was introduced to veteran songwriter Norman Gimbel and composer Charles Fox; the two men signed her to a management contract in which they would write her songs and manage her career, and take 20% of her income. The three shared a common Jewish heritage and Scorpio astrological signs, and they began to pool songwriting ideas. Gimbel also began an affair with Lieberman, even though he was 24 years older and married. They kept the affair a secret for years.
In November 1971, Lieberman, then 20, went out with her friend Michele Willens to see Don McLean perform at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles. McLean’s hit song “American Pie” was rising in the charts, but Lieberman was strongly affected by McLean singing another song: “Empty Chairs”. This song spurred her to write poetic notes on a paper napkin while he was performing the song. Willens confirms that Lieberman was “scribbling notes” on a napkin as soon as McLean began singing the song. After the concert, Lieberman phoned Gimbel to read him her napkin notes and share her experience of a singer reaching deep inside her world with his song. Lieberman’s description reminded Gimbel of a song title that was already in his idea notebook, the title “killing us softly with some blues”. Gimbel expanded on Lieberman’s notes, fleshing them out into song lyrics. Gimbel said in 1973 that “Her conversation fed me, inspired me, gave me some language and a choice of words.” Gimbel passed these lyrics to Fox, who set them to music.
As time marched on and Roberta Flack’s recording of the song became so successful, there were disputes over the origin of the songs and challenges to Lieberman’s contributions.
On the Mike Douglas show in 1973: https://youtu.be/cTyGLBANuOg
Roberta Flack first heard the song on an airplane, when the Lieberman original was featured on the in-flight audio program. After scanning the listing of available audio selections, Flack would recall: “The title, of course, smacked me in the face. I immediately pulled out some scratch paper, made musical staves [then] play[ed] the song at least eight to ten times jotting down the melody that I heard. When I landed, I immediately called Quincy Jones at his house and asked him how to meet Charles Fox. Two days later I had the music.” Shortly afterwards Flack rehearsed the song with her band in the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, but did not then record it.
Roberta Flack: https://youtu.be/DEbi_YjpA-Y
In September 1972, Flack was opening for Marvin Gaye at the Los Angeles Greek Theater; after performing her prepared encore song, Flack was advised by Gaye to sing an additional song. Flack later said, “I said well, I got this song I’ve been working on called ‘Killing Me Softly…’ and he said ‘Do it, baby.’ And I did it and the audience went crazy, and he walked over to me and put his arm around me and said, ‘Baby, don’t ever do that song again live until you record it.'”
Released in January 1973, Flack’s version spent a total of five non-consecutive weeks at number one in February and March, more weeks than any other record in 1973. Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1973.
Lori’s still got it: https://youtu.be/2vCQhxx-knI
Just for fun, a swing version: https://youtu.be/XLAwefD_aRY
Or how about a funk version: https://youtu.be/PUnOxvlibKI
Keep rockin my friends,
Stan Bradshaw