Killing Me Softly With His Song

By Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel
1971

With the death late last month of Norman Gimbel, prominent lyricist of the 1950s-1970s, let's take a look at one of his most successful and controversial creations. The generation of "Killing Me Softly", one of the '70s most hypnotic and poignant ballads, is fraught with conflict: Singer-songwriter Lori Lieberman recorded the original version, claiming to have based it on a poem she wrote after being moved by a concert performance by Don McLean, which she then brought to Fox and Gimbel to turn into a song. Fox and Gimbel would later claim to have written the song with little input from Lieberman, and that McLean had nothing to do with it. This heated debate continued right up to Gimbel's death, with McLean recently reporting that he received a cease and desist letter from the lyricist regarding McLean's claims that the song was inspired by him. McLean maintains his version of the story to this day. Meanwhile, the most successful version would be recorded in 1973 by Roberta Flack, who took it all the way to number one for over a month.

Lyrics:

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him, to listen for a while
And there he was, this young boy, a stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he'd found my letters and read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish, but he just kept right on

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

Recorded By:

Johnny Mathis
Perry Como
The Fugees
Anne Murray
Shirley Bassey