Peak
1
Weeks
16
Score
4,037
Chart Year
1973
The accompanying music video for "Killing Me Softly", directed by Aswad Ayinde[64] and based on Lauryn Hill's ideas, won an MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B Video.[65] The video depicts the trio watching a movie in a cinema. It also features a cameo of Roberta Flack.[
"Killing Me Softly With His Song" was written by the songwriting team of Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972. According to Lieberman, the song was inspired by Don McLean, a singer/songwriter famous for his hit "American Pie." After being mesmerized by one of his concerts at the Troubadour theater in Los Angeles - and in particular McLean's song "Empty Chairs" - Lieberman wrote a poem on a napkin describing how she felt about McLean's performance and brought it to Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, who were writing songs for her new album. In a 1973 interview with the NY Daily News, Gimbel said: "She told us about this strong experience she had listening to McLean. I had a notion this might make a good song so the three of us discussed it. We talked it over several times, just as we did with the rest of the numbers we wrote for the album and we all felt it had possibilities." When Songfacts spoke with Charles Fox in 2010, he refuted this story: "I think it's called an urban legend. It really didn't happen that way. Norman Gimbel and I wrote that song for a young artist whose name was Lori Lieberman. Norman had a book that he would put titles of songs, song ideas and lyrics or something that struck him at different times. And he pulled out the book and he was looking through it, and he says, 'Hey, what about a song title, 'Killing Me Softly With His Blues'?' Well, the 'killing me softly' part sounded very interesting, 'with his blues' sounded old fashioned in 1972 when we wrote it. So he thought for a while and he said, 'What about 'killing me softly with his song'? That has a unique twist to it.' So we discussed what it could be, and obviously it's about a song - listening to the song and being moved by the words. It's like the words are speaking to what that person's life is. Anyway, Norman went home and wrote an extraordinary lyric and called me later in the afternoon. I jotted it down over the phone. I sat down and the music just flowed right along with the words. And we got together the next morning and made a couple of adjustments with it and we played it for Lori, and she loved it, she said it reminds her of being at a Don McLean concert. So in her act, when she would appear, she would say that. And somehow the words got changed around so that we wrote it based on Don McLean, and even Don McLean I think has it on his Web site. But he doesn't know. You know, he only knows what the legend is." Gimbel and Fox also wrote the theme songs to the TV series Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. They are the only credited songwriters on "Killing Me Softly With His Song," but Lori Leiberman has claimed authorship. Gimbel and Fox signed Lieberman to a management contract, then wrote and produced most of the songs on her 1972 debut album, including "Killing Me Softly." She released three more albums with songs written and produced by the duo (the last in 1975), but none of them sold well. Along the way, she and Gimbel became romantically involved. According to Lieberman, they ended up suing her to prevent her from recording, and later downplayed her contribution to "Killing Me Softly." A press release put out on Lieberman's behalf states: "Lieberman to this day is never given credit for lyrics and her version. McLean said he had no idea the song was about him. 'Someone called me and said a song had been written about me and it was #1,' McLean recalled. 'It was an honor and a delight, and I give Lieberman the credit. My songs have always come from my personal thoughts and experiences, so it's overwhelming when someone is moved and touched by them like Lori was.'" Flack heard Lieberman's version on an in-flight tape recorder while flying from Los Angeles to New York. She loved the title and lyrics and decided to record it herself. In an interview with The New Musical Express, Flack said: "I was flicking through the in-flight magazine to see if they'd done an article on me. After realizing they hadn't, I saw this picture of a little girl called Lori Lieberman. I'd never heard of her before so I read it with interest to see what she had that I didn't." Flack decided to record the song but felt it wasn't complete, so on arriving in New York she went into the studio and started experimenting. She changed the chord structure and ended the song with a major rather than minor chord. Flack worked on the song in the studio for 3 months, playing around with various chord structures until she got it just right. Talking about the first time he heard from Roberta Flack, Charles Fox told Songfacts: "Quincy (Jones) gave her my number. I was at Paramount Pictures one day walking through the music library, and someone handed me a telephone and said, 'This is for you.' And the voice on the other end of the line said, 'Hi, this is Roberta Flack. We haven't met, but I'm going to sing your songs.' So it was kind of magical at that - that thing just doesn't happen to people. She had just won the Grammy Award for 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.' Beautiful record. So it's kind of remarkable to get a call from her in the first place. And she did go on to sing other songs. And actually, she sang on the main title for me of a show that was called Valerie after Valerie Harper." This won Grammys in 1974 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal. Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won Record of the Year the previous year, making her the first artist to win the award 2 consecutive years. >> This was a US and UK #1 hit for Fugees in 1996. They did a hip-hop version featuring the vocals of Lauryn Hill. The Fugees wanted to change the lyrics and make it a song about poverty and drug abuse in the inner city with the title "Killing Him Softly," but Gimbel and Fox refused. This version won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and the video won for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. In the UK, it was the best-selling single of 1996, but in America it wasn't released as a song in an effort to propel album sales, which it did: it's parent album The Score sold over 6 million copies in the US. Toni Collette, Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult performed this in the film About A Boy. >> The singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat was first inspired to start singing when she heard the Fugees version of "Killing Me Softly" at the age of 11. The Fugees version is a popular Karaoke choice, but usually not a good one. Kimberly Starling of The Karaoke Informer says: "With a minimal background track virtually every girl loses the melody. They all think they sound great on this one, yet they do not." The song was covered by Leah McFall on the UK edition of The Voice in 2013. Her version landed at #36 on the British singles chart after she sung it in the semi-finals. Alicia Keys hosted the Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, Roberta Flack's 81st birthday. Keys played part of the song at the ceremony, giving a shout-out to Flack. The Blue Note singer Kandace Springs covered this on her 2020 album The Women Who Raised Me, where she pays tribute to the trailblazing female singers that influenced her, including Flack. "I knew there was no way I should do a 'straight' version similar to the original, or one that sounded like the Fugees," Springs told Songfacts. "That would just sound like a ripoff. So we searched for something new. It has a double-time beat, but the chorus actually goes twice as slow as the verse. My band had a hard time understanding what to do! But it felt great when we finally got it."
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style And so I came to see him to listen for a while And there he was this young boy, a stranger to my eyes Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song He sang as if he knew me in all my dark despair And then he looked right through me as if I wasn't there And he just kept on singing, singing clear and strong Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh La, la, la, la, la, la, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, la La Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly He was strumming my pain Yeah, he was singing my life Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 27, 1973 | 54 | 72 |
| 2 | Feb 3, 1973 | 34 | 92 |
| 3 | Feb 10, 1973 | 15 | 111 |
| 4 | Feb 17, 1973 | 5 | 121 |
| 5 | Feb 24, 1973 | 1 | 125 |
| 6 | Mar 3, 1973 | 1 | 125 |
| 7 | Mar 10, 1973 | 1 | 125 |
| 8 | Mar 17, 1973 | 1 | 125 |
| 9 | Mar 24, 1973 | 2 | 124 |
| 10 | Mar 31, 1973 | 1 | 125 |
| 11 | Apr 7, 1973 | 3 | 123 |
| 12 | Apr 14, 1973 | 9 | 117 |
| 13 | Apr 21, 1973 | 14 | 112 |
| 14 | Apr 28, 1973 | 20 | 106 |
| 15 | May 5, 1973 | 51 | 75 |
| 16 | May 12, 1973 | 56 | 70 |