The Fugees didn’t originally sing “Killing Me Softly”.

Neither did Roberta Flack.

The first released recording came from Lori Lieberman in 1972.

And behind the song is another famous musician:

Don McLean.

Lieberman has said that watching McLean perform inspired the emotional idea that eventually became “Killing Me Softly with His Song”.

That’s quite a musical family tree.

Who is Lori Lieberman?

Lori Lieberman was a young singer in the early 1970s.

She attended a Don McLean concert and was overwhelmed by the feeling that his performance seemed to describe her own life.

She later described feeling as though he was somehow reading her diaries.

That reaction became the emotional seed of the song.

Did Don McLean write “Killing Me Softly”?

No.

Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox hold the songwriting credits.

Lieberman’s precise role in the song’s creation has been debated over the years, but contemporary accounts support her story that the McLean performance and her description of it fed into the song’s development.

Lieberman then recorded it.

Her version wasn’t a major hit.

Then Roberta Flack heard it.

How did Roberta Flack discover the song?

On an aeroplane.

This is one of those stories that sounds invented.

Airlines once provided programmed music for passengers.

Flack heard Lieberman’s recording during a flight from Los Angeles to New York.

She immediately heard possibilities.

Flack reportedly listened repeatedly and began thinking about how she would rearrange it.

Imagine being Lori Lieberman.

Your record doesn’t become a hit.

But one passenger on one flight hears it.

That passenger is Roberta Flack.

Everything changes.

What did Roberta Flack change?

A lot.

Flack slowed and reshaped the composition.

Her voice makes the song feel less like someone recounting an experience and more like someone living through it in real time.

She also helped create the famous vocal refrain associated with her version.

The result reached No. 1 in America and won major Grammy Awards.

Then the Fugees did it again

In 1996, Fugees recorded their version with Lauryn Hill singing lead.

For millions of 1990s listeners, this became the definitive version.

But the Fugees weren’t really reaching back directly to Lieberman.

They were responding to Roberta Flack.

Lieberman herself has acknowledged that the Fugees probably wouldn’t have arrived at their version from her original.

So the musical path is:

Don McLean inspires Lori Lieberman.

Lieberman inspires Gimbel and Fox’s song.

Lieberman records it.

Roberta Flack hears Lieberman.

The Fugees hear the Flack tradition.

Millions of people hear Lauryn Hill.

Music moves through people.

What does “Killing Me Softly” mean?

Hearing somebody else’s art describe your own private emotions.

That’s why the song has survived.

Almost everybody has experienced this.

You hear a song.

Read a book.

Watch a film.

And think:

How does this person know?

The artist doesn’t know you.

But somehow they have described you.

Why is the title so unusual?

“Killing me softly” is deliberately contradictory.

The performance is beautiful.

The emotional effect is devastating.

You’re being hurt gently.

That’s exactly how an unexpectedly personal song can feel.

Which version should you hear first?

Try them chronologically.

Lori Lieberman – 1972.

Roberta Flack – 1973.

Fugees – 1996.

Don’t skip the original simply because it is less famous.

Hearing all three demonstrates how arrangement and performance can completely alter the emotional scale of the same composition.

Songs with similar cover histories

Torn – Natalie Imbruglia

Tainted Love – Soft Cell

Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinéad O’Connor

Valerie – Amy Winehouse

The Man Who Sold the World – Nirvana

Mad World – Gary Jules

Radar now has dedicated explainers on several of those songs, creating a natural internal-link cluster around famous covers.

Who originally sang “Killing Me Softly”?

Lori Lieberman.

Roberta Flack made it a classic.

The Fugees made it a classic again.

And Don McLean accidentally helped start the entire story simply by performing a concert.