Week Fifty-Eight: Guilty Pleasures - The Fugees - "Killing Me Softly" - The Score

Since I have spent a great deal of time this past year attempting to impress you with my musical selections and memorabilia, this week I am going to introduce you to my guilty pleasures. These are songs that may leave you scratching your head and asking: "She likes whaaaat?!?!?" I just hope you will still be able to respect me in the morning!!! :-D

Also, I will have to pull all band info from Wikipedia because I don't know much about any of these artists, other than the fact that I like these somewhat goofy songs!!!

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This is obviously a cover of the original tune entitled "Killing Me Softly with His Song". I knew that Roberta Flack had done a recording of this song, but it turns out that the original was actually recorded in 1971 and released in 1972 and was by an artist named Lori Lieberman.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the original:

"'Killing Me Softly with His Song' is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. It was a number-one hit in 1973 for Roberta Flack."

"According to Lori Lieberman, the artist who performed the original recording in 1972, the song was born of a poem she wrote after experiencing a strong reaction to the song 'Empty Chairs,' written, composed, and recorded by Don McLean. She then related this information to Gimbel, who took her feelings and put them into words. Then, Gimbel passed the words on to Fox, who set them to music."

And here's what Wikipedia has to say about The Fugees version:

"The second single, 'Killing Me Softly' was released May 31, 1996. Proving to be the most successful single from the album, it instantly reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as number one on the UK Singles Chart. Initially, the song was to be titled 'Killing Them Softly,' though alluding to Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel's 'Killing Me Softly with His Song,' it was originally not intended to be a cover, however, the original writers refused permission for the rewrite of their song, but did allow the Fugees to do a cover version. In 1997, 'Killing Me Softly' won the Fugees a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by Duo or group."

I also like the version of "No Woman, No Cry" that The Fugees did, which is a cover of Bob Marley & The Wailers; so I will include that below the lyrics...

Strumming my pain with his fingers, 
Singing my life with his words, 
Killing me softly with his song, 
killing me softly,
With his song telling my whole life 
With his words, 
Killing me softly,
With his song 
[LAURYN]
One time, One time, (one time) hey yo L you know you got the lyrics 
I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style, 
And so I came to see him and listen for a while. 
And there he was this young boy, stranger to my eyes, 
Strumming my pain with his fingers,
(one time,one time) 
Singing my life with his words,
(two times. two times) 
Killing me softly with this song, 
killing me softly,
With his song, telling my whole life, 
With his words, 
Killing me softly with his song. 
I felt all flushed with fever, 
Embarrassed by the crowd, 
I felt he found my letters then read each one out loud. 
I prayed that he would finish, 
But he just kept right on- 
Strumming my pain with his fingers, (One Time, one time!) 
Singing my life with his words, (Two Times, two times!)
Killing me softly with his song, 
Killing me softly 
With his song, 
Tellin' my whole life
With his words, 
Killing me softly, with his song 
[CLEF] 
Yo L-Boogie, boy L boy L, take it to the bridge 
[LAURYN] 
(busted)
wooahhh......woooooahh.....la la la la la la ....wooooah.. laaaaahhh... woooah..laaaaahhh Ah ah Ah ah Ah ah Ah 
Strumming my pain with his fingers, 
yes he was Singing my life with his words, 
killing me softly with his song, 
Killing me softly with his song, 
Telling my whole life with his words, 
Killing me softly with his song.
[Lauryn fading out]
Strummin' my pain
YEAAA yea yeaaaaa
[Wyclef]
Yo,put cha hands together for l L boogie yah yaey yaey
l boogie up in here (u know how we do) 

[shoutouts and fade]