The stolen royalties of a song that defined a generation

Wars & Conflicts · Published 17 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Lori Lieberman co-wrote one of the most famous songs in history, yet she was denied millions in royalties for decades. Her story is a masterclass in the predatory mechanics of the 1970s music industry, where management teams could effectively erase an artist's creative contribution from the record.

In the early 1970s, Lori Lieberman was signed to a five-year deal with Capitol Records and managers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. During this period, Lieberman described her management as 'very, very controlling,' noting that she felt 'victimized' for much of her early career. While she was credited for some work, such as the song 'My Lover Do You Know,' her primary contributions were often sidelined or appropriated by her handlers. The most prominent example is the hit 'Killing Me Softly with His Song.' While it became a global success for Roberta Flack in 1973 and again for the Fugees in 1996, Lieberman's name was omitted from the credits. For years, Gimbel and Fox publicly denied that Lieberman's writing was the essential material for the track.

However, this narrative was debunked by contemporaneous 1973 articles. In one instance, Gimbel admitted to the Daily News that the song grew from Lieberman's description of a 'strong experience' listening to Don McLean. These records, along with a 1973 Billboard article describing them as a songwriting team, vindicated her role. Lieberman eventually broke free from this management in 1976, releasing 'Letting Go' in 1978, where her compositions were fully credited. After a period of semi-retirement, she returned to music in the 1990s, eventually finding success as a major label artist again in 2009. Her journey highlights the shift from being a 'victim' of industrial gatekeepers to reclaiming her creative agency and intellectual property.

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