SONG REVIEW
Lori Lieberman and the Story Behind “Killing Me Softly With His Song”
How a young, female musician’s contributions were overlooked … again
The soulful ballad “Killing Me Softly with His Song” got Roberta Flack inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Fugees certified triple-platinum. But the original version by Lori Lieberman, who wrote the poem that inspired it, is mostly forgotten.
Lieberman’s contributions to one of the most memorable songs of the 20th century were dismissed and downplayed by her older, male co-writers — a familiar musical tale as old as time.
When I took up singing lessons, the first song I learned was “Killing Me Softly.” I sang the closed-eyes, ballad version of Flack rather than the Fugees hip-hop version. I felt powerful singing that song alone for the first time outside my bedroom, just like that scene in the 2002 film About a Boy.
In retrospect, “Killing Me Softly” wasn’t a great choice for the inexperienced singer that I was.
With a minimal background track virtually every girl loses the melody. They all think they sound great on this one, yet they do not.
Kimberly Starling, The Karaoke Informer
