Roberta Flack - "Killing Me Softly."

[velcro]

One of the best R&B tracks of all time, in my opinion. There is just something irresistable, haunting about that slow beat... and Roberta's laid back vocals.

www.terrificmusic.com/files/music/K/killing_me_softly_with_his_song.ram

[irock]

I couldn't agree more. This is a beautiful song, one of Roberta's (imo) three all-time masterpieces. The other two are Jesse and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

[velcro]

irock said:

I couldn't agree more.  This is a beautiful song, one of Roberta's (imo) three all-time masterpieces.  The other two are Jesse and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

I agree with that and would add the album tracks "I Told Jesus", "Suzanne", and "Reverend Lee". Roberta's first four albums were filled with classics and masterpieces, though.

[irock]

Those are good choices as well. I might be tempted to add Suzanne but in all honesty I think Roberta's been outdone on that tune. IMO Judy Collins' rendition is even better.

[velcro]

irock said:

Those are good choices as well.  I might be tempted to add Suzanne but in all honesty I think Roberta's been outdone on that tune.  IMO Judy Collins' rendition is even better.

I'll have to check into that.

[reception]

I didn't like it.

[mst3k]

Pure classic... I love it.

[Deleted]

I like it, but I prefer her duets with Donny.

[Nick]

I like Al B. Sure's version. Please don't say a word.

[cartman2002]

The original "Killing Me Softly" went to #1 on the pop chart for 5 weeks

[joker]

Classic, good stuff.

[Deleted]

#123 on Pitchfork's 200 Best Songs of the 1970's

These days, we think of the Fugees’ 1996 cover as having introduced a new generation to Roberta Flack’s Grammy-winning 1973 single “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” but Flack wasn’t the first artist to cut it. She heard folk singer Lori Lieberman’s 1972 version on TWA’s in-flight music service and knew she had to do her own version. “But I’d never heard of Lori Lieberman, so I thought I’d see what she’d got going for her that I didn’t have,” Flack told NME shortly after her version became a hit. “Before I heard the song, I thought it had an awfully good title, and when I heard it I really loved it.”

Lieberman’s infatuation with Don McLean may have influenced Norman Gimbel’s lyrics (really), but it’s easy to see why Flack was the one who took “Killing Me Softly” to No. 1. This is a song about witnessing a performance that resonates so deeply, the singer might as well be using your soul as an instrument. The experience isn’t a totally emotional one, though; phrases like “strumming my pain with his fingers” and “I felt all flushed with fever” pulse with physicality, and Lieberman’s dreamy voice and acoustic guitar couldn’t do justice to that side of the song. It took Flack’s warm, searching alto, Ron Carter’s teasing bass, and Grady Tate’s throbbing drums to heat up the track without trampling its innocence. –Judy Berman

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Love it. Classic!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Jan 5, 2005 19:42:39 GMT -5 Nick said:

I like Al B. Sure's version. Please don't say a word.

Lmao. Me too!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

So sad  😢

[colson]

Tragic

[Soulsista]

Oh no. 😥

[disman00911]

Good tune though I'm more familiar with the Fugees cover/sample of the track.