Tag Archives: Charles Fox

♫ I Got A Name ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Some nights you’re just in the mood for a certain artist.  For me, it’s usually gonna be Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie,  James Taylor … but tonight for some reason it’s Jim Croce that came to mind after I finished ranting about one thing or another.  The man has a voice that I could listen to all night long!  It’s been a couple of years since I last played this one, so it’s fair game …

This is one of the few songs Croce recorded, but did not write.  According to his wife, Ingrid …

“It was written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. And they were wonderful guys, really nice people. Jim had been selected to sing this song for this particular movie [“The Last American Hero” starring Jeff Bridges as a stock car racer]. He really enjoyed this opportunity, because he went into the recording studio and it was a little awkward for him not to hold his guitar – his guitar is kind of like a bar for the bartender, having that prop between him and the audience was just a real security, it made him feel very comfortable. So putting down the guitar to sing, just to sing the song in the studio, was a very unusual thing for Jim, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a brand new start for him in some ways, to use his vocals in a different way. I think it’s one of the most powerful songs he does on that album for sure. I loved it.  More people think he wrote that song. His voice was so unique… the timbre in his tone and his warmth and his generosity, everything came through that voice. So when he took a song, he’d make it his own, and I think he did a great job with ‘I’ve Got A Name.’ So many people like to think of Jim with that song that I hate to tell them it isn’t his.”

This was the last song Croce played before his death. He performed it as an encore at a show in Natchitoches, Louisiana at Northwestern College. The crowd was small, as many folks stayed home to watch the Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match that night. Croce’s plane, taking off in the dark after the concert, clipped a tree and crashed, killing all six people on board.

What I like most  (besides listening to that gorgeous voice of Jim’s) is the message this song conveys … that of a man who is proud of who he is and where he is going in life, undeterred by the naysaying of others.  

Jim Croce’s son A.J. Croce recorded the song for a 2018 Goodyear tire ad that pays tribute to famed racecar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, whose father, NASCAR Hall of Fame member Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a car crash at age 49.  Both A.J. and Earnhardt Jr. lost their fathers young, and Croce said that the similarities between Earnhardt Jr.’s life and his own made contributing to the commercial appealing to him:

“There aren’t a lot of people that grow up in the shadows of a famous musician, or race car driver. I get what he lived through, and he gets what I lived through.”

The song only made it to #10 in the U.S., #8 in Canada, and did not chart at all in the UK.

Lena Horne sang this in 1976 on the first season of The Muppet Show.  While I love Lena Horne, her version does not hold a candle to Croce’s, but I am playing it as a second here, because … well … puppy … and Muppets … who can resist?

I Got a Name

Jim Croce

Like the pine trees linin’ the windin’ road
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
Like the singin’ bird and the croakin’ toad
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I’m living the dream that he kept hid

Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by

Like the north wind whistlin’ down the sky
I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
Like the whippoorwill and the baby’s cry
I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
And I carry it with me and I sing it loud
If it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud

Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by

And I’m gonna go there free

Like the fool I am and I’ll always be
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream
They can change their minds but they can’t change me
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream
Oh, I know I could share it if you want me to
If you’re goin’ my way, I’ll go with you

Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by
Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Charles Fox / Norman Gimbel
I Got a Name lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Killing Me Softly With His Song ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under music

It wasn’t my intention to redux again tonight, but this song crossed my path earlier this evening and decided it would stay and visit the inside of my head for a few hours.  By the time I sat down to do my music post, every song I looked at sounded exactly like Killing Me Softly.  Long story short, here it is again, though I did play it just a couple of years ago. 

This was written by the songwriting team of Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972. Gimbel and Fox also wrote the theme songs to the TV shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. They are the only credited songwriters on “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” but Lori Leiberman has claimed authorship. A press release put out on Lieberman’s behalf states: “Lieberman to this day is never given credit for lyrics and her version.”  Lieberman also claims that Don McLean of American Pie fame was the inspiration for the song, but Charles Fox denies it.

Roberta Flack heard Lieberman’s version on an in-flight tape recorder while flying from Los Angeles to New York. She loved the title and lyrics and decided to record it herself. In an interview with The New Musical Express, Flack said: “I was flicking through the in-flight magazine to see if they’d done an article on me. After realizing they hadn’t, I saw this picture of a little girl called Lori Lieberman. I’d never heard of her before so I read it with interest to see what she had that I didn’t.” Flack decided to record the song but felt it wasn’t complete, so on arriving in New York she went into the studio and started experimenting. She changed the chord structure and ended the song with a major rather than minor chord. Flack worked on the song in the studio for 3 months, playing around with various chord structures until she got it just right.  In my opinion, she succeeded.

This song won Grammys in 1974 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal. Flack’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won Record of the Year the previous year, making her the first artist to win the award 2 consecutive years.  While I far prefer Roberta Flack’s version to any others, the song was recorded in 1996 by a group called the Fugees, and it was their version that hit the #1 spot in the UK in ’96.  I listened to their version tonight, and admit it is damned good … almost as good as Roberta’s.  They wanted to change the lyrics and make it a song about poverty and drug abuse in the inner city with the title “Killing Him Softly,” but Gimbel and Fox refused.  Thankfully.

Killing Me Softly with His Song
Roberta Flack

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

I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him, to listen for a while
And there he was, this young boy, a stranger to my eyes

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

I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he’d found my letters and read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish, but he just kept right on

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

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 words

Songwriters: Norman GImbel / Charles Fox
Killing Me Softly with His Song lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

♫ I Got A Name ♫

Posted on by under music

I just finished my ‘good people’ post and sat back to see if a song would just magically pop into my head, not really believing it would, but … POOF!  There was a song!  It took me a few minutes of playing around with lyrics and partial lyrics on Google to remember the title of the song, but I had the tune strumming through the cobwebs in my mind!  Now, you all know … those who have been with me for a while … that I’m a big fan of Jim Croce.  This is not his most famous or popular, but … I like it, like the tune and like the message it sends.

This is one of the few songs Croce recorded, but did not write.  According to his wife, Ingrid …

“It was written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. And they were wonderful guys, really nice people. Jim had been selected to sing this song for this particular movie [“The Last American Hero” starring Jeff Bridges as a stock car racer]. He really enjoyed this opportunity, because he went into the recording studio and it was a little awkward for him not to hold his guitar – his guitar is kind of like a bar for the bartender, having that prop between him and the audience was just a real security, it made him feel very comfortable. So putting down the guitar to sing, just to sing the song in the studio, was a very unusual thing for Jim, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a brand new start for him in some ways, to use his vocals in a different way. I think it’s one of the most powerful songs he does on that album for sure. I loved it.  More people think he wrote that song. His voice was so unique… the timbre in his tone and his warmth and his generosity, everything came through that voice. So when he took a song, he’d make it his own, and I think he did a great job with ‘I’ve Got A Name.’ So many people like to think of Jim with that song that I hate to tell them it isn’t his.”

This was the last song Croce played before his death. He performed it as an encore at a show in Natchitoches, Louisiana at Northwestern College. The crowd was small, as many folks stayed home to watch the Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match that night. Croce’s plane, taking off in the dark after the concert, clipped a tree and crashed, killing all six people on board.

What I like most  (besides listening to that gorgeous voice of Jim’s) is the message this song conveys … that of a man who is proud of who he is and where he is going in life, undeterred by the naysaying of others.  

Jim Croce’s son A.J. Croce recorded the song for a 2018 Goodyear tire ad that pays tribute to famed racecar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, whose father, NASCAR Hall of Fame member Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a car crash at age 49.  Both A.J. and Earnhardt Jr. lost their fathers young, and Croce said that the similarities between Earnhardt Jr.’s life and his own made contributing to the commercial appealing to him:

“There aren’t a lot of people that grow up in the shadows of a famous musician, or race car driver. I get what he lived through, and he gets what I lived through.”

The song only made it to #10 in the U.S., #8 in Canada, and did not chart at all in the UK.

Lena Horne sang this in 1976 on the first season of The Muppet Show.  While I love Lena Horne, her version does not hold a candle to Croce’s, but I am playing it as a second here, because … well … puppy … and Muppets … who can resist?

I Got a Name

Jim Croce

Like the pine trees linin’ the windin’ road
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
Like the singin’ bird and the croakin’ toad
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I’m living the dream that he kept hid

Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by

Like the north wind whistlin’ down the sky
I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
Like the whippoorwill and the baby’s cry
I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
And I carry it with me and I sing it loud
If it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud

Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by

And I’m gonna go there free

Like the fool I am and I’ll always be
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream
They can change their minds but they can’t change me
I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream
Oh, I know I could share it if you want me to
If you’re goin’ my way, I’ll go with you

Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by
Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Charles Fox / Norman Gimbel
I Got a Name lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Killing Me Softly With His Song ♫

Posted on by under music

I typically prepare these music posts just before going to bed, when my resources are at their lowest, emotions a bit on edge from the news of the day, and so I seem to come up with ‘sappy’ songs more often than not.  Tonight is no exception.

This was written by the songwriting team of Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and first recorded by Lori Lieberman in 1972. Gimbel and Fox also wrote the theme songs to the TV shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. They are the only credited songwriters on “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” but Lori Leiberman has claimed authorship. A press release put out on Lieberman’s behalf states: “Lieberman to this day is never given credit for lyrics and her version.”  Lieberman also claims that Don McLean of American Pie fame was the inspiration for the song, but Charles Fox denies it.

Roberta Flack heard Lieberman’s version on an in-flight tape recorder while flying from Los Angeles to New York. She loved the title and lyrics and decided to record it herself. In an interview with The New Musical Express, Flack said: “I was flicking through the in-flight magazine to see if they’d done an article on me. After realizing they hadn’t, I saw this picture of a little girl called Lori Lieberman. I’d never heard of her before so I read it with interest to see what she had that I didn’t.” Flack decided to record the song but felt it wasn’t complete, so on arriving in New York she went into the studio and started experimenting. She changed the chord structure and ended the song with a major rather than minor chord. Flack worked on the song in the studio for 3 months, playing around with various chord structures until she got it just right.  In my opinion, she succeeded.

This song won Grammys in 1974 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal. Flack’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won Record of the Year the previous year, making her the first artist to win the award 2 consecutive years.  While I far prefer Roberta Flack’s version to any others, the song was recorded in 1996 by a group called the Fugees, and it was their version that hit the #1 spot in the UK in ’96.  I listened to their version tonight, and admit it is damned good … almost as good as Roberta’s.  They wanted to change the lyrics and make it a song about poverty and drug abuse in the inner city with the title “Killing Him Softly,” but Gimbel and Fox refused.  Thankfully.

Killing Me Softly with His Song
Roberta Flack

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

I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him, to listen for a while
And there he was, this young boy, a stranger to my eyes

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

I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he’d found my letters and read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish, but he just kept right on

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

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 words

Songwriters: Norman GImbel / Charles Fox
Killing Me Softly with His Song lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc