Song:Killing Me Softly With His Song
Album:Playlist: The Very Best Of Fugees
For a brief period of time in the mid-90s, the Fugees may have been the hottest group in music especially with this cover of Killing Me Softly With His Song. But they only recorded two albums before splitting up and attempts to reform have been unsuccessful. Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel met while in high school in South Orange, NJ and formed Tranzlator Crew. Michel's cousin Wyclef Jean joined the group and signed in 1993 with Ruffhouse Records with Columbia distribution. They changed the group name to Fugees which is a derogatory term for Haitian Americans. Pras and Jean are from Haiti. Their 1994 debut CD Blunted On Reality did OK with the single Nappy Heads charting. But the group wasn't happy with the album and they got more creative control for the 1996 CD The Score. It was a huge success and was certified 6XPlatinum. It was one of the top albums of 1996. Most of the album had original Fugees songs except for Killing Me Softly With His Song which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course most folks are familiar with Roberta Flack's 1973 version. But Flack didn't record it first. The song was written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox who usually write songs for films. It was written for and first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1971 and Flack heard her recording of the song which is about Lieberman's impression of a Don McLean concert. For me, the Fugees recording is a straight cover. It's nothing special. I don't know why it was such a big hit. You can get all the Fugees hits on this budget comp. All three had successful solo careers after that and the Fugees have never recorded another album. They did reunite in 2005 to tour with plans to record. But conflict within the group scuttled that with Michel and Jean both blaming Hill for bad behaviour. I don't see them reuniting again. Here's the video for Killing Me Softly With His Song by Fugees.
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