Friday, August 15, 2008

1973: Killing Me Softly



Lori Lieberman: Killing Me Softly With His Song

[purchase]

Roberta Flack: Killing Me Softly With His Song

[purchase]

The Fugees: Killing Me Softly With His Song

[purchase]

I don't normally do more than one contribution per theme but the entire week has passed and nobody has posted the Grammy winner for "Song of the Year" in 1973.

To quote Gomer Pyle, "For shame, for shame, for shame".

While kids today probably think this is a Fugees song the truth is it was originally recorded in 1971 by Lori Lieberman. The song was inspired by the poem, "Killing Me Softly with His Blues", which she wrote after seeing a then-unknown Don McLean perform the song "Empty Chairs" live. Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel turned the poem into a song for her 1971 debut album, Lori Lieberman. Roberta Flack would cover it for use as the title track on her 1973 release, Killing Me Softly. Roberta not only rode the song to #1 on the Billboard 100 for 4 weeks she cashed in on three Grammy's with it: Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female Performer.

See y'all next week.

Submitted by Autopsy IV

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