"Killing Me Softly with His Song" was inspired by a poem Lieberman wrote after hearing Don McClean perform "Empty Chairs"

For decades, nobody really knew Lori Lieberman’s secret. Sure, the singer was the first to record “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1972, but it wasn’t until Roberta Flack covered it a year later that the song hit No.

Roberta Flack did not write Killing Me Softly. There is some dispute about who did. Two music industry veterans were involved: composer Charles Fox (who also wrote a lot of TV theme songs, including The Love Boat) and lyricist Norman Gimbel.