Don McLean Inspired What Became One of Roberta Flack’s Biggest Hits in 1973

In 1973, Roberta Flack released “Killing Me Softly With His Song”. The title track of her fourth studio album, the song was written by  Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. Before Flack released her version, it was released by Lori Lieberman.

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Although Lieberman was not initially credited as a songwriter, Fox and Gimbel wrote “Killing Me Softly”, inspired by Lieberman telling them about her experience attending a Don McLean show.

 “She told us about this strong experience she had listening to McLean,” Gimbel remembers. “I had a notion this might make a good song… We talked it over several times, just as we did for the rest of the numbers we wrote for this album, and we all felt it had possibilities.”  

Later, Lieberman admitted she was a bit embarrassed by the song.

“I remember feeling about the song that it was good, and I liked it,” she says. “I don’t think I loved it at all. It almost embarrassed me because I didn’t want anybody to view me as a groupie who had gone to, you know, a concert.  I just didn’t want to be seen like that.” 

What Roberta Flack Says About “Killing Me Softly”

Flack had other hits throughout her career, including “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Feel Like Makin’ Love”, and more. But it’s “Killing Me Softly” that remains her most renowned.

“Many people married,” Flack tells Forbes in 2021. “Many babies made, many hearts broken, and new loves found… A year or two ago, I was watching the Academy Awards and the director of the Best Picture of the Year, when asked how he was going to celebrate his win, said that he and his cast and crew were going to sing karaoke to Roberta Flack’s ‘Killing Me Softly.’ Hearing that my version of that song was included in celebrating such a wonderful night for them made me so happy.”

“Killing Me Softly” says, “Strumming my pain with his fingers / Singing my life with his words / 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.”

Flack won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, for her version of “Killing Me Softly With His Song”. In 1996, the Fugees also had a hit with their version of the song. It also appears on Flack’s 1981 The Best Of Roberta Flack album.

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