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In fact, the inspiration came from a young singer named Lori Lieberman, who saw Mr. McLean perform at a club in Los Angeles. She wrote in her diary that listening to his songs was as intensely personal (and as embarrassing) as if he had read aloud from her own letters.
She conveyed that sentiment, in those words, to Mr. Gimbel, who wrote a lyric based on her account. Ms. Lieberman recorded the song, and that is how Ms. Flack discovered it.
In 1995, after a two-decade hiatus spent raising a family, Ms. Lieberman recorded an album of her own songs (''A Thousand Dreams''). There, modestly tucked away, is ''Killing Me Softly'' -- partly a tribute and partly a footnote to those times when it seemed that some of us would never satisfy our appetite for that devilishly tasty ''American Pie.''