Do You Remember? My Memories from My Musical Road in my 1st Year.
Do You Remember? My Memories from My Musical Road in my 1st Year.
Adrian (The Archive of My Life)
17 Jun, 2023
The 20th of February 1972 to the 19th of February 1973
Ok so I’m not even 1 yet. What do I know about music at this stage of my little life?
Now, I suppose I could have heard the next few songs via osmosis or something but when I hear them again there is something that I get from somewhere. Could’ve been years later on the radio I suppose but they were released in this year. Sooo, for this and probably the next year too, I’m taking it that they went in there somehow when I was on my way to my first birthday.
Roberta Flack
Killing Me Softly With His Song
My memory of this song is a little hazy,…
…and I’m not quite sure how I heard it first.
Roberta’s version I definitely remember. However, my mother had Perry Como’s latest album “And I Love You So” which had his version of this track on there, changing the title to “Killing Me Softly With Her Song”.
Perry Como – Killing Me Softly With Her Song
I may have been introduced to the tune via Perry’s version initially. However, as far back as I can remember, I also know (and my favourite is) Roberta’s version.
I tend to remember this song being played on the radio as no-one I know had the single or the song.
Roberta’s version is itself a cover version of the song…
The original was recorded a year before by Lori Lieberman.
The infamous story goes, that Lori went out one evening to the Troubadour club in Los Angeles and sat and watched Don Mclean perform.
At the time he was promoting his “American Pie” album, and it was when he sang “Empty Chairs”, that the performance affected Lori to the point where she had to write her feelings down on a napkin.
Don McLean – Empty Chairs
Immediately afterwards, she contacted her songwriting partners she was working with at the time, Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox.
When she spoke to Norman on the phone and relayed what she had written, about a singer reaching deep inside her soul with his song, it triggered a memory of a line Gimbel had written in a notebook “killing us softly with some blues”.
With this information, he expanded and wrote the lyric, before handing it over to Fox to compose the music.
Lieberman quietly released the song as a single in 1972 and went on to perform the song live, along with the rest of her album, throughout the early seventies and always told the audience the story of Don McLean beforehand.
Eventually, after Roberta’s release, she’d get the chance to share her version and the story behind it on television by guesting on the Mike Douglas Show.
Lori Lieberman sings “Killing Me Softly” on Mike Douglas Show, 1973
Roberta happened upon the song by pure chance,…
…while flicking through the onboard entertainment radio during a flight to Jamaica.
Again, something to write on was needed, so Roberta grabbed some paper and wrote the music down (a talent I have never learnt).
Once she landed, she got to a phone and phoned none other than Quincy Jones, who got in touch with Charles Fox.
It took a further two days before she had the music in her hands.
Once she got her band together, they rehearsed the song.
By September, while supporting for Marvin Gaye, Roberta introduced the song to a paying audience.
“And I did it and the audience went crazy, and he [Marvin] 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.'”
Doing as she was told, the song was recorded and released in January 1973 where it shot to the top of the U.S. charts.
Here in the U.K.,
…it will enter the singles chart on the 11th of February 1973, 9 days before my first birthday, at No.47.
It will climb steadily until, 4 weeks later, it will break the Top 10 to land at No.8 and climb a place a week for the next couple of weeks until it reaches it’s highest position of No.6.
After two further weeks in the Top 10, it will start falling away at the beginning of April, saying goodbye to the U.K. Chart after the 19th of May 1973 with a total of 14 weeks.
The “A” Side
Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly With His Song
The “B” Side
Roberta Flack – Just Like A Woman
The success of Roberta’s version of the song earned her a Grammy award for Record of the Year.
Of course the song was once again successfully covered a further 23 years later by the Fugees and did even better than Roberta’s, notching up a total of 5 weeks at No.1.
Fugees – Killing Me Softly
But for all the success of their version, and other imitations such as Perry Como’s, my heart is firmly attached to Flack’s rendition.
It pours soul from the heart straight into mine.
And what of the one person who was the catalyst for the song to be written in the first place..?
I leave the final word to Don McLean…
“I’m absolutely amazed. I’ve heard both Lori’s and Roberta’s version and I must say I’m very humbled about the whole thing. You can’t help but feel that way about a song written and performed as well as this one is.”
Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly With His Song (Video Promo)
Many thanks go to the following YouTube Channels for providing the chance to hear these songs once again.
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