I cannot agree with this, and I think you will be proven very wrong. Mine too! For me, we are already at the beginning. Only in your opinion, of course.
While I think Flack's version is considerably better.. I enjoyed Leiberman's version, too. It's a more simple, folk type delivery... and there's a certain appeal in it's simplicity.
That's right. 1973-74 will include a lot of odd-balls, corn-balls & less impressive No. 1s. A few that come to mind: -Dark Lady -The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia -Billy Don't Be a Hero -The Night Chicago Died -The Streak Later in the 70s, there will be drek like -Disco Duck -Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (ugh. Pure rot).
And I like a lot of those songs - although often only for nostalgia value - but yeah, several of those are dumber than a bag of wet cement. The nadir of big '70s hits is a little over 4 years off, but it's a good example of how stupid the charts became. I love dumb pop, but not a relentless diet of the crap.
I like Killing Me Softly but not an awful lot, like a vast quantity of no. 1 songs already. The difference is that I think it's a superior song on its own merits. I call it The Last Good Song That Won a Grammy Award. The fact that it's about Don Maclean is irrelevant (I like Empty Chairs). I prefer The Last Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
"Killing Me Softly" was the #1 song the day I was born, which has always struck me as wholly appropriate given how I've always paid close attention to lyrics. I love Roberta Flack's version, can take or leave the others. Surprisingly, I have no recollection of "Empty Chairs" although I did have a tape of American Pie when I was a teenager (taped from an LP I borrowed from the library). Incidentally, in Andy Williams' version - which is just as deliciously campy as you'd think - he changes the singer's gender: "Killing me softly with her song." I've always wondered why, as the lyrics have absolutely no indication that there's anything sexual between the singer and the audience member.
I'm not sure if this in reference to her two #1s up to that point but for clarity's sake, she had three. Four if you believe more than one week at #2 is as good as a #1.
Never cared for the Fugees' remake. Ms. Flack's was the most definitive. It should be noted that: - Early pressings faded the song out more than 30 seconds earlier (running time listed as 4:13 rather than the full 4:46). - Real early pressings misspelled co-writer Norman Gimbel's surname as "Gimble." - "Killing Me Softly..." was issued by Atlantic as 45-2940. The next cat. # - 45-2941 - was an Aretha Franklin single, which she co-produced with Quincy Jones, "Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes)." As for Ms. Lieberman, I'll forever associate her with "The Great American Melting Pot" from Schoolhouse Rock:
Y'all probably would've hated living in the 1930's / '40's / pre-rock and roll '50's. There was what some would call "utter garbage" in that period, namely: - "Three Little Fishies (Itty Bitty Poo)" - "The Hut-Sut Song" (more Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show than ABBA) - "One Meat Ball" - "Open The Door, Richard" - "Cement Mixer (Put-ti, Put-ti)" - "(How Much Is That) Doggie In The Window?" - "Oh, My Pa-Pa" Now, back to "Killing Me Softly . . . " - on the R&B chart, it stalled at #2. Da noive (as they'd say in Brooklyn) . . .
I like The Fugees' version of "Killing Me Softly", but only the radio edit which runs about 4 minutes. On the album version that runs closer to 5 minutes, there's some talking right before the first verse and near the end of the song that sounds out of place and unnecessary. I don't think anyone could ever top Roberta, though.
Nope . . . no-one could. As you listen to Ms. Flack's rendition, you may notice a slight uptick in the tempo as it goes along. Not so prevalent anymore with everything being sequenced on a graph, but was very much common in the olden days of "analogue" timekeeping. Some records that speed up or slow down in its tempo as they go along (I'm not talking deliberate changes), and there's a big beat, you could actually see the pattern as the record spins. For some collectors, that sight could be hypnotic.
The 1973 winning streak continues, as "Killing Me Softly" is a delicate, elegant song and my favorite among Roberta Flack's hits. You can just feel the style coming across the airwaves. This is one of the earliest songs I remember hearing throughout its entire hit cycle. I grew up in Puerto Rico, and my parents would tune in to adult-contemporary stations or local pop stations, which would mostly broadcast Spanish-language hits of the time, with the occasional national US hit seeping through. "Killing Me Softly" was one of them, and even at the age of eight I thought it was, well, killer. The Fugees' remake isn't really my cuppa tea, but I do appreciate them opening up the song to a new, younger audience. The oldies stations of the time rarely touched Roberta's record, for some reason, and after the Fugees you started to hear it a bit more, in a sheepish "sorry we forgot about this one" way...
Yes, consecutive weeks in the Top 5 qualify for a No. 1 spot in my book, especially when the No. 1 hogs the spot FOR WEEKS.
"Killing Me Softly" squarely hits an intra-genre sweet spot between pop, soul, folk-rock, jazz & easy listening. Ms. Flack had the skill and feel to find that spot and effectively aim for it. It's a master class on how to appeal to a broad audience with a high level of quality. And yeah, when this thread hits the late '90s I'll (hopefully) be here preachin' for the Fugees too.
Another great thing about "Killing Me Softly" ... it saves me from trying to come up with something profound to say about "Dueling Banjos", which it kept at #2. I like bluegrass, but c'mon ...
First-pressings of "Dueling Banjos" didn't even have an artist credit on the left side, it just mentioned from which film (Deliverance) it came. I don't even think it was original; I seem to have read somewhere it was originally issued on an Elektra (I.I.N.M.) album in 1963. 'Course, by '73, Warners' and Elektra were de facto sister labels, owned by what by then was Warner Communications, Inc.: A logo which we won't see on labels owned by this company until two years from this point.
I'll take any top 10 hit from the 70s, 80s, and 90s over that crap in the 30s, 40s and 50s. At least the 70s stuff has an edge. That mess ^ from the 40s and 50s was so pure and squeaky clean enough to drive a person batty. Brace yourself for the anti-R&B, funk, and disco posts!
