Roberta Flack Killing me softly with his song Piano Solo sheet music

Roberta Flack Killing me softly with his song Piano Solo sheet music Noten partitura spartiti 楽譜, 乐谱

“Killing Me Softly with His Song” is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The lyrics were written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman after she was inspired by a Don McLean performance in late 1971. Denied writing credit by Fox and Gimbel, Lieberman released her version of the song in 1972, but it did not chart. Many other artists have covered the song.

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In 1973, it became a number-one hit in the United States, Australia and Canada for Roberta Flack, and also reached number six on the UK Singles Chart. In 1996, Fugees recorded the song with Lauryn Hill on lead vocals. Their version became a number-one hit in twenty countries; including Germany, where it became the first single to debut atop the chart. The version by Flack won the 1974 Grammy for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The version by Fugees won the 1997 Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Propelled by the success of the Fugees track, the 1972 recording by Roberta Flack was remixed in 1996 by Jonathan Peters, with Flack adding some new vocal flourishes; this version topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart.

Flack and Fugees would go on to perform the song together. The versions by Fugees and Roberta Flack were both placed on the 2021 revised list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. According to Billboard, it is one of nearly a dozen songs to be Grammy nominated for Song of the Year that have had two versions reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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After decades of confirming Lieberman’s contribution, Fox and Gimbel changed their story about the song’s origins to downplay her role. Gimbel threatened McLean with a lawsuit in 2008, demanding he remove from his website an assertion that McLean was the inspiration for “Killing Me Softly”, but McLean responded by showing Gimbel the latter’s own words confirming the inspiration, published in 1973.

Roberta Flack version

Lieberman was the first to record the song in late 1971, releasing it in early 1972. Helen Reddy has said she was sent the song, but “the demo… sat on my turntable for months without being played because I didn’t like the title”.

Roberta Flack first heard the song on an airplane, when the Lieberman original was featured on the in-flight audio program. After scanning the listing of available audio selections, Flack would recall: “The title, of course, smacked me in the face. I immediately pulled out some scratch paper, made musical staves [then] play[ed] the song at least eight to ten times jotting down the melody that I heard. When I landed, I immediately called Quincy [Jones] at his house and asked him how to meet Charles Fox. Two days later I had the music.” Shortly afterwards Flack rehearsed the song with her band in the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, but did not release it. She was unhappy with the background vocals on the various mixes she auditioned. Atlantic executive Tunc Erim assured her it would be a hit song no matter which mix was released. She refused, recalling later that she “wanted to be satisfied with that record more than anything else.”

In September 1972, Flack was opening for Quincy Jones at the Los Angeles Greek Theater; after performing her prepared encore song, Flack was advised by Quincy Jones to sing an additional song. Flack recalled, “I said ‘Well, I have this new song I’ve been working on’… After I finished, the audience would not stop screaming. And Quincy said, ‘Ro, don’t sing that daggone song no more until you record it.’”

Released in January 1973, Flack’s version spent a total of five non-consecutive weeks at number one in February and March, more weeks than any other record in 1973. Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1973.

Charles Fox suggested that Flack’s version was more successful than Lieberman’s because Flack’s “version was faster and she gave it a strong backbeat that wasn’t in the original”. According to Flack: “My classical background made it possible for me to try a number of things with [the song’s arrangement]. I changed parts of the chord structure and chose to end on a major chord. [The song] wasn’t written that way.” The single appeared as the opening track of her Killing Me Softly album, issued in August 1973.

Flack won the 1973 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, for the single, with Gimbel and Fox earning the Song of the Year Grammy.

In 1996, a house remix of Flack’s version went to number one on the US dance chart.

In 1999, Flack’s version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It ranked number 360 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and number 82 on Billboard’s greatest songs of all time.
Personnel

Credits are adapted from AllMusic.

Roberta Flack – vocals, pianos, rhythm track arrangement
Donny Hathaway – harmony vocals
Eric Gale – guitars
Ron Carter – bass
Grady Tate – drums
Ralph MacDonald – congas, percussion, tambourine

Killing Me Softly With His Song: Lyrics

Uh
Yeah, we’re like that, yeah
We’re like that
Something like that, aye

Strumming my pain with his fingers (one time) yeah, yeah
Singing my life with his words (two times)
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

Yeah, yeah, yeah
I heard he sang a good song (ah-ah), I heard he had a style (he did)
And so, I came to see him and listen for a while
And there he was this young boy, a stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers (one time) (c’mon, c’mon)
Singing my life with his words (two times)
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song (c’mon)
Telling my whole life (that’s right, that’s right) with his words
Killing me softly (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah) with his song

Oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh (c’mon, c’mon, c’mon)
La-la-la-la-la-la (ah, ah)
Oh, oh-oh-oh (yeah, yeah, yeah)
La-a-ah
Oh, oh-oh-oh
La-a-ah, la-a-ah, la-a-ah (yeah, c’mon) la-a-ah, la-a-ah

Strumming my pain with his fingers (one time)
Yes, he was singing my life (two times)
Killing me softly with his song (that’s right)
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song, yeah-yeah-yeah

Uh

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