"Freddie's Dead" is a song by

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the " Gentle Genius", he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious Afric ...

. It was the first

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from his

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

for the film '' Super Fly''. The single was released before the ''Super Fly'' album, and before the film was in theaters. The song peaked at #4 on the U.S. ''

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

'' and #2 on the R&B chart. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the No. 82 song for 1972. The song laments the death of Fat Freddie, a character in the film who is run over by a car. Like most of the music from the ''Super Fly'' album, "Freddie's Dead" appears in the film only in an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

arrangement, without any lyrics. The song's music is featured prominently in the film's opening sequence and also recurs at several other points. Because of this usage the song was

subtitled Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions ...

"Theme from ''Superfly''" on its single release (but not on the album). It is not to be confused with " Superfly", a different song and the second single released from the ''Super Fly'' album. The arrangement is driven by a strong bass line, wah wah guitars, and a melancholy string orchestration. The song was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in the category Best Rhythm & Blues Song but lost to "

Papa Was a Rollin' Stone "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is a song originally performed by Motown recording act the Undisputed Truth in 1972, though it became much better known after a Grammy-award winning cover by the Temptations was issued later the same year. This la ...

". "Freddie's Dead" was ruled ineligible for the

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who h ...

because its lyrics are not sung in the film ''Super Fly''.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Covers and parodies

*The 1973

MFSB MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom ...

album features an instrumental cover of the song. *"Freddie's Dead" was sampled in the 1973

break-in record A break-in record is a Novelty song, novelty record which combines spoken word comedy with clips of popular music to create a humorous effect. The subject matter was often inspired by contemporary events or popular culture such as television show ...

, "

Super Fly Meets Shaft "Super Fly Meets Shaft" is a break-in record co-written by Dickie Goodman and recorded by John & Ernest. It consists of lines from popular R&B/soul songs of the day, which tell a story about the main characters from the films '' Super Fly'' (19 ...

" (US #31). *The 1988

Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1979, the band plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative ...

album ''

Truth and Soul ''Truth and Soul'' is the second studio album by American Rock music, rock band Fishbone. It was released on September 13, 1988. As is typical of the band's history of music the album features a wide array of genres including punk rock, punk, sk ...

'' features a cover of the song. *

Master P Percy Robert Miller (born April 29, 1967), better known by his stage name Master P, is an American rapper, record producer, record executive, dancer, actor and entrepreneur. He founded the record label No Limit Records in 1991, which was relau ...

recorded "Kenny's Dead", a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of Mayfield's song for the television show ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'', featuring the character

Kenny McCormick Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick is a fictional character and one of the four main protagonists in the adult animated sitcom ''South Park'', alongside Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. His often muffled and incomprehensible speech—th ...

, for '' Chef Aid: The South Park Album''.

References

External links