Artist:Lori Lieberman
Song:Killing Me Softly
Album:Truly
Singer songwriter Lori Lieberman's claim to fame is she recorded Killing Me Softly before Roberta Flack scored her breakthrough hit with the song in 1973. So what happened to Lori? She's still around. She was born Nov. 15, 1951 in Los Angeles. She attended the International School of Geneva in Switzerland and Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA. Both are private schools. She got interested in music through her sister's record collection. At age 19, she signed a management deal with the songwriting team of Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. These two normally write songs for movies. As far as I can tell, this is the only time they ever did a management deal. They signed with Capitol Records and Killing Me Softly was on Lori's 1972 album Lori Lieberman. Gimbel and Fox wrote and produced the album. As you will see in the video clip, Lori tells the story of how she was inspired by a Don McLean concert to write a poem. Gimbel used that to write the lyrics for Killing Me Softly. But she didn't get a songwriting credit. Gimbel and Lori started an affair. And during the affair, they agreed with her account. They denied it after they split up in 1976. Lori recorded five albums for Capitol all produced by Gimbel and Fox. Capitol dropped her once the affair ended. She recorded an album for Jimmy Ienner's Millennium label. And then she retired from music to raise her family. Lori returned in the 90s and she currently records for her own label. Her Capitol albums have never been released on CD. But Lori recorded Killing Me Softly on her 2022 album Truly. This is an album of standards. Here's Lori Lieberman performing Killing Me Softly followed by an interview on The Mike Douglas Show 1973.
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