5. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly With His Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1eOsMc2Fgg Written by: reportedly Lori Lieberman and songwriter Norman Gimbel; first recorded in 1972. Who it's about: Famed singer-songwriter Don McLean. The exact origins of Killing Me Softly With His Song, which was made famous first by Roberta Flack and then by The Fugees, are wrapped up in drama, resulting from the existence of two separate and disputed origin stories. The first comes from American singer-songwriter Lori Lieberman, who first became active in the 1970s. According to her, the song started with her writing a poem in reaction to hearing Empty Chairs, a song written and performed by Don McLean, of American Pie fame. Lieberman claims that she passed this poem and her feelings surrounding it on to Norman Gimbel, who transformed them into Killing Me Softly With His Song. Lieberman then recorded the song in 1972. However, composer Charles Fox, who wrote the music for the piece, has a different story. He explains that he and Gimbel wrote the song entirely on their own, and that Lieberman later heard the piece and felt it resonated with her and her feelings about Don McLean's music. Don McLean himself has expressed that he was not aware the song was written about him, but has consistently supported Lieberman's take on the matter.