“Killing Me Softy with His Song” was recorded by Roberta Flack and released in January of 1973.
Roberta was on a plane and reading a brochure of the inflight song selection and was curious about the title. She was immediately struck with the lyrics of the song and listened to the recording by Lori Lieberman five times before the plane landed.
The story in the last post on Flack’s cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” has quite the back story and this song is no different. But lets get the basics out of the way first.
Roberta would repeat her 1973 win in 1974 with her version of “Killing Me Softy with His Song” and be awarded Record of the Year. She used the same producer Joel Dorn who had successes with other artists such as Bett Midler, The Allman Brothers Band, The Neville Brothers and several Jazz musicians. His two Grammys were with Roberta Flack. She was the first artist to win back to back and not only that she also won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Roberta had made several chord and other changes, along with that incredible voice.
Based on the Robert Flack cover the song would also win for Song of the Year, the award going to the credited songwriters, Norman Gimble and Charles Fox.
Gimbel and Fox were very successful songwriters and music entrepreneurs. While they have separate credits for many songs, together they wrote “I Got a Name” by Jim Croce which was released after his death and reached #10 on the Hot 100. The also wrote songs for Barry Manilow, Rosemary Clooney and Jenifer Warnes to name a few. Gimbel wrote the English lyrics for “The Girl from Ipanema” and a number of other foreign language songs that were very successful.
You may be aware there is some controversy over the origins of the song. This is my understanding. Lori Lieberman was contracted to Gimbel and Fox’s publishing company as a singer-songwriter. Her side of the story is that she was inspired to write some basic lyrics to the song after listening to a Don McLean performance. She wrote the words on a bar napkin and would later reveal them to Charles Fox.
For Fox and Gimbel’s side of the story they said she had nothing to do with the song, and they wrote it for her to record. They say her story is revisionist history and discredited her as someone who wanted to cash in on the success of Roberta Flack’s version. However published articles from 1973 were later found and would reveal that Gimbel referred to Lieberman’s “strong experience’ after seeing McLean and another referenced Lieberman, Gimbel and Fox as a songwriting team.
Unfortunately, Lori did not have the napkin nor a written copy of the lyrics. She was just 19 at the time and unaware of the potential pitfalls of the publishing business. She has never claimed she wrote the song, just that she contributed the concept and some of the words. Though her story seems quite credible to me and more importantly to Roberta Flack and Don McLean, the official song credits have not changed. Many sources cite her as an uncredited Songwriter. She continues to perform and write songs and has had a moderately successful career.
I have not found any evidence Lieberman has received any payment or royalties from the song. Gimbel’s estate was said to be worth more than 35 million dollars when he died in 2018. As for the song The Fugees would release a version in 1996, though not a single in the US, the album sold 22 million copies worldwide. The song was #2 on the Hot Airplay chart and as a single, it was a smash hit in Europe selling a reported 15 million copies. I did read a reference The Fugees said their version generated some 8 million dollars in royalties to the songwriters, this to me sounds like an an accurate estimate.