Photo credit: Jeri Jones Photography
(NEW YORK August 29, 2023) Fifty years ago, musical icon Roberta Flack established a cultural landmark with her performance of a song about the inspirational power of music, “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The single spent five non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in Canada and Australia – just the start of its many awards and achievements. It won a GRAMMYs for Record of the Year (Roberta’s second win in that category) and Song of the Year plus earned Flack Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and in 1999 the single was enshrined in the GRAMMY Hall of Fame. In the years since its release, Flack’s recording has reverberated through pop culture to earn it stature as a musical standard and one of the most recognized ballads in popular music.
(NEW YORK August 29, 2023) Fifty years ago, musical icon Roberta Flack established a cultural landmark with her performance of a song about the inspirational power of music, “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The single spent five non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in Canada and Australia – just the start of its many awards and achievements. It won a GRAMMYs for Record of the Year (Roberta’s second win in that category) and Song of the Year plus earned Flack Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and in 1999 the single was enshrined in the GRAMMY Hall of Fame. In the years since its release, Flack’s recording has reverberated through pop culture to earn it stature as a musical standard and one of the most recognized ballads in popular music.
When she won the Record of the Year for “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” Flack said as she accepted it, “I’d like to thank the world.” As a primary factor in her global fame, she notes how, “Parts of the song reminded me of my life, of the pain that comes with loving someone deeply, of feeling moved by music, which is the universal language. More than anything, music makes us feel.”
Also hitting the Top 10 in the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Argentina and Ireland, the single inspired the title and was the lead track for Roberta’s double-platinum third album on Atlantic Records, Killing Me Softly, which reached #3 on the Billboard charts and was nominated for an Album of the Year GRAMMY® award. Flack’s hit led to it being covered more than 450 times, most notably by The Fugees in 1996. Sung by Lauryn Hill, the song was #1 again in the US, topped the singles charts in 19 other countries, and won The Fugees a GRAMMY® for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Other artists who covered Flack’s performance which made the number an indelible classic include Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Luther Vandross, Andy Williams, Shirley Bassey, Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ‘77, Lynn Anderson, Englebert Humperdink, and Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass. It should be noted here in what’s also the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop that Roberta’s music has been sampled more than 200 times, many of them by hip-hop acts.
To salute the song’s half-century mark, Rhino/Atlantic Records have created a classic Roberta Flack T-shirt on sale for a limited time at store.atlanticrecords.com/en/atlantic-75/classic-roberta-t-shirt/5021732088840_CONF.html. Fans can also purchase musical gems from her catalog at the online store at www.rhino.com/artist/roberta-flack.
“Roberta Flack’s career demands a new way of thinking about the word ‘genius,’” NPR states, shining a light on how Flack’s talent transcends genre and categories with a voice and sound unlike anyone else. Throughout her career she drew from such Black music styles as R&B, jazz, gospel, blues and soul and blended them with her classical training and background as well as rock, popular classics, folk and Latin songs and influences. Her inspirational life was the subject of a PBS “American Masters” documentary film (www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/roberta-flack-documentary/23084/) that debuted in January of this year.
She is hailed as an elegant and legendary vocal superstar and enjoys enduring global fame thanks to “Killing Me Softly...” and her two other #1 singles, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Feel Like Makin' Love," her hit duets with Donny Hathaway "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You," and such other top hits as "Tonight I Celebrate My Love" and "Set the Night to Music." She was the first and only solo artist to win the GRAMMY Award for Record of the Year for two consecutive years until Billie Eilish recently matched her achievement, and has earned a total of 13 GRAMMY nominations. Roberta is also known as a dedicated humanitarian and music education advocate.