The five greatest covers of ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’
It’s hardly going to make headlines as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in history, but nevertheless, Roberta Flack is a bit of a criminal.
Believe it or not, for years she allowed the world to believe that one of her greatest ever hits, when the reality is that this could not be any further from the truth. In fairness, if anyone was seeking retribution, she’d be joining the back of a very long line of sonic bandits responsible for similar crimes, but the point still stands.
The bottom line in all of this is that the iconic 1970s standard of ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ did not originally belong to its most famous export, but instead to the wholly underappreciated Lori Lieberman, who wrote the song in 1972 to no acclaim whatsoever, an entire year before Flack came along and made it an international hit.
“I had just come to LA from Switzerland, where I grew up. I was shy and in this very dramatic relationship,” Lieberman later recalled. “I was so thrilled to have my first record deal that I gave [the songwriting credit] away unknowingly. I didn’t fight for anything. I didn’t even know that was an option.”
Crimes of humanity aside, it’s clear that ‘Killing Me Softly’ has racked up quite the reputation since Lieberman let it pass. So what are five of the best covers?
Five of the best covers of ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’:
Roberta Flack
Of course, we have to begin with the obvious choice, jokes about her sonic thievery being tongue in cheek. It was a sliding doors moment of chance that led Flack to strike gold – namely, an in-flight music system where she heard Lieberman’s original version being played above the clouds.
Quickly jotting down the notes and passing the song to Quincy Jones, one thing led to another and soon Flack was performing it as a last-minute addition to a concert. The crowd went wild. “Ro, don’t sing that daggone song no more until you record it,” was his response, and the rest is history. Shooting to number one and with a Grammy for ‘Record of the Year’ to boot, it’s fair to say the song’s legacy was Flack’s, fair and square.
The Fugees
Over two decades down the line, The Fugees again placed their own firm stamp on the song when they covered it in 1996, appearing on their second and final album of The Score. It arrived as a reimagining of other covered hits, including the likes of ‘No Woman, No Cry’ by Bob Marley and the Wailers. But it was the soul-infused heart that would really take the crown.
There seems to be a recurring theme in all of this, in the respect that The Fugees’ chances of recording ‘Killing Me Softly’ were also almost missed. In the end, it was the final track they recorded for the album, and it went on to be their most successful. Becoming one of the most acclaimed hip-hop songs to ever be released in the UK, its appeal was so massive that it even had to be removed from shelves to make way for the band’s next single, ‘Ready or Not’.
Linda Imperial
This might seem like a slightly rogue addition to the list, but a little-known artist by the name of Linda Imperial covered ‘Killing Me Softly’ in 1991 with her own bespoke disco twist and changed its sound irrevocably forever. While the rest might be focused on sultry soulfulness, Imperial was more concerned with turning the whole affair into a floor-filling party.
Released in 1991 via the San Francisco disco label Megatone Records, there’s no denying that a cover like this was a product of the times it was created in. But if you want a spine-tingling version of the track, with Imperial belting out the words like her life depends on it, and complete with a pounding dance beat only the ‘90s could master, this is just the right place to look.
Tori Amos
In many ways, you could say Flack and Tori Amos were like kindred spirits, or at least the latter likes to think that way. But it is true that being both a powerful vocalist and an export piano player is a skill they both shared, and thus Amos has admired Flack for as long as her musical memories will take her back.
Speaking of the singer’s Killing Me Softly album to The Quietus, she said: I don’t remember how I came upon [it] but I was much younger. I was quite a big fan of Roberta Flack,” making it clear that their similar musical prowess had always been apparent to her. It’s no surprise, in this sense, that Amos has covered the song live on multiple occasions over the years – she is simply paying homage to a hero.
Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross is one of those people who probably doesn’t get anywhere the recognition that he should in terms of his contributions to the genre of R&B, and shaping it into the craft we know and love today. But in the case of his cover of ‘Killing Me Softly’, taken from his 1994 album Songs, the shoe was very much on the other foot.
After all, Vandross had begun his career in the 1960s and early ‘70s by becoming a backing vocalist, and one of those who he happened to fall into the orbit of was Flack herself. He lent his voice to her 1972 duet album Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, a year before she recorded the seminal hit in question, and it’s clear he watched her trajectory in awe ever since.
As such, when it came to recording his own version of the song, he was not just honouring his inspirations but also just how far he had come himself.
