Killing me Softly – no more

Ther epochal singer and classical pianist Robert Flack died yesterday on the way to hospital, at the age of 88.

She gave up singing two years ago with the onset of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Her teacher at Howard University was Hazel Harrison, known as the ‘premiere black classical pianist, who had studied in Berlin with Ferruccio Busoni. Roberta quit chool when her father died in 1959 and made her way singing in clubs.

She won a Grammy Record of the Year two years running – in 1973 for ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ and the following year for ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’. People measured their lives by the second ballad.

Where were you when you first heard it?