''Killing Me Softly'' is a
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American singer-songwriter
Roberta Flack
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer. She topped the Billboard Magazine, ''Billboard'' charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like M ...
, released on August 1, 1973, by
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
.
She recorded the album with producer
Joel Dorn Joel Dorn (April 7, 1942 – December 17, 2007) was an American jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur. He worked at Atlantic Records, and later founded the 32 Jazz, Label M, and Hyena Records labels. He called himself "T ...
for 18 months.
The album was dedicated to
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935Kernfeld, Barry.Kirk, Roland" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. ''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Retrieved February 1, 2009-. "The year ...
.
''Killing Me Softly'' reached number three on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Top LPs & Tape
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...
and number two on the
Soul LPs chart.
The
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) certified the album
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
on August 27, 1973, and double platinum on January 30, 2006, denoting shipments of two million copies in the United States.
It was nominated for a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for
Album of the Year Album of the Year, often abbreviated to AOTY, may refer to:
Awards
* ARIA Award for Album of the Year, Australia
* Brit Award for British Album of the Year, UK
* Grammy Award for Album of the Year, US
* Juno Award for Album of the Year, CA
* Lati ...
, which it lost to
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
's 1973 album ''
Innervisions
''Innervisions'' is the sixteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on August 3, 1973, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. A landmark recording of Wonder's "classic period", the album has bee ...
''. The album's
title track
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title.
Title track may al ...
was released as a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
and topped the
''Billboard'' Hot 100.
It won the
1974 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
Critical reception
Reviewing for the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' in September 1973,
Clarence Page
Clarence Page (born June 2, 1947) is an American journalist, syndicated columnist, and senior member of the ''Chicago Tribune'' editorial board.
Early years
Page was born in Dayton, Ohio, and attended Middletown High School in Middletown where ...
said ''Killing Me Softly'' has a hit title track and "other potential hits, adding up to one of
lack'sbetter albums".
John S. Wilson, writing in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', felt that Flack and producer
Joel Dorn Joel Dorn (April 7, 1942 – December 17, 2007) was an American jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur. He worked at Atlantic Records, and later founded the 32 Jazz, Label M, and Hyena Records labels. He called himself "T ...
"have resisted the pitfalls of overproducing that you would suppose such a long gestation period would induce".
[ ] ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' called the record a "delicate, introspective work" by Flack, whom the magazine deemed a "masterful interpreter of clean lyrics fusing a sophisticated
pop sound with that dark side of the
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
".
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was less impressed in a December 1973 column for ''
Creem
''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential criti ...
'', giving ''Killing Me Softly'' a "C" while comparing Flack negatively to
Jesse Colin Young
Perry Miller (born November 22, 1941), known professionally as Jesse Colin Young, is an American singer and songwriter. He was a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s group the The Youngbloods, Youngbloods. After their dissolution in 1972 ...
because she also "always makes you wonder whether she's going to fall asleep before you do".
In a retrospective review, ''
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...
'' (1992) gave the record two-and-a-half out of five stars and found its music "innocuous".
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Ron Wynn later gave it four and a half stars, writing that the album "continued in the same tradition as ''
Chapter Two'' and ''
Quiet Fire''", featuring "simmering ballads, declarative message songs, and better-than-average up-tempo numbers".
Track listing
# "
Killing Me Softly with His Song
"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 ...
" (
Charles Fox,
Norman Gimbel
Norman Gimbel (November 16, 1927 – December 19, 2018) was an American lyricist of popular songs, television and movie themes. He wrote the lyrics for songs including "Killing Me Softly with His Song", " Ready to Take a Chance Again" (both with ...
) - 4:49
# "Jesse" (
Janis Ian
Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit " Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the 1975 Top T ...
) - 4:03
# "No Tears (In the End)" (
Ralph MacDonald
Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist.
His compositions ...
, William Salter) - 4:56
# "I'm the Girl" (
James Alan Shelton
James Alan Shelton (November 3, 1960 – June 3, 2014) was an American bluegrass guitarist. Shelton was a solo musician, released 10 albums, and performed with the Clinch Mountain Boys.
Life
James was born in Kingsport, Tennessee and raised in G ...
) - 4:55
# "River" (
Gene McDaniels
Eugene Booker McDaniels (February 12, 1935 – July 29, 2011) was an American singer and songwriter. He had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s, reaching number three on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart with " A Hun ...
) - 5:03
# "Conversation Love" (
Terry Plumeri
Jon Terryl "Terry" Plumeri (November 28, 1944 – March 31, 2016) was an American musician, classical composer, orchestra conductor, double bassist, lecturer, teacher, producer, and film score composer.
Early life
Plumeri was born in Greensboro ...
, Bill Seighman) - 3:43
# "When You Smile" (Ralph MacDonald, William Salter) - 3:44
# "
Suzanne" (
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
) - 9:44
Personnel
Credits are adapted from
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
.
* Roberta Flack – vocals, pianos, rhythm track arrangements
*
Eric Gale
Eric Gale (September 20, 1938 – May 25, 1994) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist.
''Early life and career''
Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, Gale grew up in a diverse household. His paternal grandfather was from Yorksh ...
– guitars
*
Ron Carter
Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...
– bass
*
Grady Tate
Grady Tate (January 14, 1932 – October 8, 2017) was an American jazz and soul-jazz drummer and baritone vocalist. In addition to his work as sideman, Tate released many albums as leader and lent his voice to songs in the animated '' Schoolhou ...
– drums
*
Ralph MacDonald
Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist.
His compositions ...
– congas, percussion, tambourine
*
Kermit Moore
Kermit Moore (March 11, 1929 – November 11, 2013) was an American conductor, cellist, and composer.
Early life and education
Of African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an eth ...
– cello (4), cello arrangements (4)
*
Eumir Deodato
Eumir Deodato de Almeida (; born 22 June 1942) is a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger and record producer, primarily in jazz but who has been known for his eclectic melding of genres, such as pop, rock, disco, rhythm and blues, classical, ...
– string arrangements and conductor (2, 8)
*
Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis
Alfred James Ellis (April 21, 1941 – September 23, 2021), known as Pee Wee Ellis due to his diminutive stature, was an American saxophonist, composer, and arranger. With a background in jazz, he was a member of James Brown's band in the 196 ...
– brass arrangements and conductor (3)
* William Eaton – horn arrangements (5, 7)
*
Don Sebesky
Don Sebesky (born December 10, 1937) is an American arranger, jazz trombonist, and keyboardist.
Biography
Sebesky trained in trombone at the Manhattan School of Music; in his early career, he played with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Do ...
– horn and string arrangements (6), conductor (6)
Production
* Joel Dorn – producer
* Jack Shaw – associate producer
*
Gene Paul
Gene William Paul (born August 20, 1944) is an American audio recording / mixing / mastering engineer, producer and musician. He was an engineer at Atlantic Recording Studios during their famed 1960s–80s period and is currently the chief mas ...
– engineer and remix (1)
* Bob Liftin – engineer and remix (2-8)
* Barry Diament – mastering
* Shorewood Graphics – design concept
*
Rod Dyer
Rod Dyer (born in South Africa) is an American graphic artist, illustrator, photographer and restaurateur.
Career
Dyer has been described as a "prominent graphic designer who created many of the album covers for Capitol Records in the 1960s." L ...
– design
* Burt Goldblatt – backliner photography
* David Redfern – inside photography
Charts
Certifications
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Roberta Flack albums
1973 albums
Albums arranged by Don Sebesky
Albums arranged by Eumir Deodato
Albums produced by Joel Dorn
Atlantic Records albums