Who recorded it first
Killing Me Softly with His Song
Not a Fugees original — first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972
This one confuses people in layers. Younger listeners take ‘Killing Me Softly’ for a Fugees song; many others credit Roberta Flack, whose 1973 version was the huge hit. But both are covers. The song was written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel and first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972 — a single that never charted. Flack made it famous a year later; the Fugees revived it in 1996.
The record
Who recorded it first
How we traced it
The song was written by composer Charles Fox and lyricist Norman Gimbel, and first recorded by Lori Lieberman, released as a single on Capitol in 1972 Wikipedia ↗.
Lieberman’s original did not chart. Roberta Flack heard it — reportedly on an in-flight audio programme — and cut her own version, released in January 1973; it spent five weeks at No. 1 and won the Grammy for Record of the Year, eclipsing the original almost entirely.
In 1996 the Fugees recorded a hip-hop and soul reworking that became a global hit, which is why many younger listeners now take the song for theirs — a second cover layered on top of the first SecondHandSongs ↗.
SecondHandSongs — the original and every coverKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
The attribution problem
This is a layered misattribution rather than a single error. Nothing about the Fugees’ record or Flack’s is fake; both are real, and Flack’s is a classic. The mistake is treating either famous version as the origin — two covers stacked on top of a 1972 original that never charted.
‘It’s a Fugees song’ (or an Aretha-style Flack original)
The Fugees’ 1996 version and Flack’s 1973 version are both covers. The song was recorded first by Lori Lieberman in 1972 the history ↗.
Lori Lieberman, 1972
Her Capitol single never charted, which is exactly why two later versions could each be mistaken for the source. There was no famous original standing in the way.
Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel
Fox and Gimbel wrote the song and won a Grammy for it. Performer credit and authorship are different things — and here the authorship itself is contested, over how much of the idea came from Lieberman.
Written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972, made famous by Roberta Flack in 1973, and revived — but not originated — by the Fugees in 1996 the record ↗.
Context
Why the covers ate the original
A cover eclipses its original most completely when the original never had its moment — and this song had that happen twice. Lori Lieberman’s 1972 recording did not chart, so when Roberta Flack’s version arrived a year later and went to No. 1, there was nothing in public memory to displace. Flack simply became the song.
Then it happened again. The Fugees’ 1996 revival was a global hit for listeners too young to know Flack, so a cover of a cover became, for them, the original. The 1972 record kept receding — and with it the credit and royalties Lieberman said she was owed for the idea that started it, a dispute Fox and Gimbel and Lieberman have argued over for decades.
The three records, in order
- Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel write the song (1971–72), reportedly from an idea Lori Lieberman brought them.
- Lieberman records it first, 1972 (Capitol); it does not chart.
- Roberta Flack releases her version, January 1973 → US No. 1, Grammy Record of the Year.
- The Fugees release their revival, 1996 → a worldwide hit and a 1997 Grammy.
- The 1972 original all but disappears from public memory beneath two famous covers.
A cover of a cover: the original sank so quietly that two later versions each got mistaken for the source.