Roberta Flack
1937 -
American singer and pianist
Born in Black Mountain, NC
22" X 30"
oil on wood
My Mom, when first hearing the Fugees version (if you can call it that) of "Killing Me Softly" exclaimed "Well, I don't like what they've done to this song at all. Why would you want to change the original?
And why would you really? I mean RF was a true queen of jazzy soul and RnB when she broke onto the scene. And she totally killed it with that tune. Did you know she won an Oscar for Best Song in 1974 for that jam. And did you know she is also a highly accomplished jazz and classical pianist? And check out this craziness ripped straight off the Wikipedia site:
"In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours." Who the fuck does that?!?! And we're talking songs here...not blip bleeps and tape loops...real versechorusversechorusbridgechorus songs.
Oh yeah she also wrote that song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" which makes every woman in the world cry. Total babe too.
To NURKIN,
ReplyDeleteAs good as she is, Roberta Flack did not write "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" It was written by Ewan MacColl in 1957 and was recorded over 45 times by artists such as, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Smothers Brothers, etc. However, it was Roberta who made it famous (Grammy winning) by her special arrangement