Song · Roberta Flack
“Killing Me Softly With His Song” by Roberta Flack
From the EP Woman From Tokyo (1973)
“Killing Me Softly With His Song” by Roberta Flack appears on 3 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2020 and 2026. It was first released in 1973 on the EP Woman From Tokyo. Its best result is #406 on the 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,673 indie & aaa song of all time and #405 of the '70s.
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Roberta Flack took "Killing Me Softly with His Song" to number one in the United States, Canada and Australia in 1973, and to number six in Britain, though the song had already come and gone once. Charles Fox wrote the music and Norman Gimbel the words, working with Lori Lieberman after a Don McLean concert late in 1971 fired her imagination; Lieberman's own 1972 version never charted.
Flack's reading is all hush and slow burn, and it won her Grammys for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year in 1974. It kept its grip, too: a 1996 remix by Jonathan Peters, with fresh vocal touches from Flack, topped the dance club chart, and Rolling Stone put her version on its 2021 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 746 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 406 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2026 | 765 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Killing Me Softly with His Song.
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