The Story Behind Roberta Flack's No. 1 Hit Killing Me Softly With His Song

The most iconic song ever released by legendary R&B singer Roberta Flack, who died on February 24, 2025, is undoubtedly "Killing Me Softly With His Song." Flack released the track in January 1973, and it was an instant hit, becoming a No. 1 hit in the United States, Australia, and Canada. The song went on to earn Flack two Grammy Awards in 1974: one for Record of the Year and one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

With all that being said, the origin story of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" is just as intriguing as the story of its success, and it's something not many people know about. Originally written for American singer-songwriter Lori Lieberman by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, the song has a somewhat of a disputed history. Here's how Flack discovered the song that helped her reach the peak of her career and made her presence immortal in the music industry.

The origin of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" dates back to 1971, when Lori Lieberman attended a Los Angeles concert of folk singer Don McLean. Inspired by McLean's performance of the song "Empty Chairs" at the concert, Lieberman grabbed a napkin and took down notes to shape what would later become one of Roberta Flack's greatest hits. Lieberman soon visited Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, the songwriting duo that managed her at the time, with the napkin, and "Killing Me Softly With His Song" was born. Lieberman and Gimbel wrote the lyrics, while Fox composed the tune. Lieberman dropped the song in 1972, but it unfortunately failed to hit the charts.

Shortly after Lieberman released the song, Flack heard it as part of the in-flight audio program while flying from Los Angeles to New York. Later on, recalling how fast the song caught her attention, Flack told NME (via Far Out Magazine), "The title, of course, smacked me in the face. I immediately pulled out some scratch paper, made musical staves [then] play[ed] the song at least eight to 10 times jotting down the melody that I heard. When I landed, I immediately called Quincy [Jones] at his house and asked him how to meet Charles Fox. Two days later I had the music."

Soon, Flack tweaked Lieberman's version, making changes here and there. She went on to sing her rendition of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" during a 1972 Quincy Jones concert, and it received a roar of approval from the audience, encouraging Flack to record and release the song in 1973. The song was also included in Flack's August 1973 album "Killing Me Softly," and the rest is, of course, history.

Although Lori Lieberman has claimed to have helped write the original version of "Killing Me Softly With His Song," Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel now refuse to give her any credit for it. As a matter of fact, on different occasions, the songwriting duo has made contradictory statements about Lieberman's contribution to the song's lyrics as well as what inspired it.

In 1973, Gimbel told New York Daily News (via Songfacts), "[Lieberman] told us about this strong experience she had listening to McLean. I had a notion this might make a good song so the three of us discussed it." However, years later, in 2010, Fox completely changed the narrative, telling Songfacts, "Norman Gimbel and I wrote that song for a young artist whose name was Lori Lieberman. ... She loved it; she said it reminded her of being at a Don McLean concert. So in her act, when she would appear, she would say that. And somehow the words got changed around so that we wrote it based on Don McLean." That said, the song's origin story may be debated, but the mark it has left on the history of music is undoubtedly everlasting.