Killing Me Softly with His Song

Lori Lieberman sat in a concert hall in late 1971 and watched Don McLean perform, sparking lyrics that Charles Fox later set to music. Her own recording of the song appeared on Columbia Records in 1972 but never found an audience. Roberta Flack heard the track while flying from Atlanta to New York in 1972 and decided it needed her specific touch. She recorded it for her self-titled album released in February 1973 under Atlantic Records, produced by Phil Ramone and Don Grolnick.

The resulting album Killing Me Softly with His Song became a defining moment for soft rock and soul. It spent multiple weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and earned Platinum certification for selling over a million copies. The record features twelve tracks including intimate covers like You've Got a Friend and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, all anchored by Flack's delicate vocal delivery.

Award season brought major recognition when the album won Album of the Year and the single took home Record of the Year plus Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974. Decades later, the Fugees released their version on The Score in 1996, led by Lauryn Hill. Their hip-hop adaptation topped charts in twenty countries and won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. A remix by Jonathan Peters also pushed the original Flack recording to number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart that same year. [edit]