"Freddie's Dead" is a song by

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

. It was the first single from his

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

soundtrack album for the film '' Super Fly''. The single was released before the ''Super Fly'' album, and before the film was in theaters. The song peaked at #4 on the U.S. ''

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

'' and #2 on the R&B chart. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the No. 82 song for 1972. The song laments the death of Fat Freddie, a character in the film who is run over by a car. Like most of the music from the ''Super Fly'' album, "Freddie's Dead" appears in the film only in an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...

arrangement, without any lyrics. The song's music is featured prominently in the film's opening sequence and also recurs at several other points. Because of this usage the song was

subtitled Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

"Theme from ''Superfly''" on its single release (but not on the album). It is not to be confused with " Superfly", a different song and the second single released from the ''Super Fly'' album. The arrangement is driven by a strong bass line, wah wah guitars, and a melancholy string orchestration. The song 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 pre ...

in the category Best Rhythm & Blues Song but lost to " Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". "Freddie's Dead" was ruled ineligible for the

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed t ...

because its lyrics are not sung in the film ''Super Fly''.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Covers and parodies

*"Freddie's Dead" was sampled in the 1973 break-in record, "

Super Fly Meets Shaft "Super Fly Meets Shaft" is a break-in record co-written by Dickie Goodman and recorded by John & Ernest. It consists of lines from popular R&B/soul songs of the day, which tell a story about the main characters from the films '' Super Fly'' (19 ...

" (US #31). *The 1988

Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1979, that plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the l ...

album ''

Truth and Soul ''Truth and Soul'' is the second studio album by American rock band Fishbone. It was released on September 13, 1988. As is typical of the band's history of music the album features a wide array of genres including punk, ska, reggae, soul, funk, a ...

'' features a cover of the song. *

Master P Percy Robert Miller Sr. (born April 29, 1967), known by his stage name Master P, is an American rapper, record executive, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the record label No Limit Records, which was relaunched as ...

recorded "Kenny's Dead", a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...

of Mayfield's song for the television show '' South Park'', featuring the character

Kenny McCormick Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick is a fictional character and one of the four main characters in the adult animation, adult animated television series ''South Park'' along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. His often muffled and incompr ...

, for '' Chef Aid: The South Park Album''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1972 songs 1972 singles Film theme songs Curtis Mayfield songs Songs written by Curtis Mayfield Songs about death Songs about fictional male characters Songs written for films Song recordings produced by Curtis Mayfield