Killing Me Softly is the fourth recorded album by American singer-songwriter Roberta Flack. It was released on August 1, 1973, by Atlantic Records. Roberta worked with producer Joel Dorn for 18 months to create the album, which was honored to Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

The album reached number three on the Billboard Top Albums and Tapes chart and number two on the Soul Albums chart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded the album a gold certification on August 27, 1973, and a double platinum certification on January 30, 2006, showing that two million copies were sold in the United States. It was considered for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year but lost to Stevie Wonder’s 1973 album Innervisions. The album’s title track was released as a single and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It won the 1974 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

"Jesse," the next single after the title track, reached number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Record World described the single as "a beautiful Janis Ian song […] well-made by Joel Dorn."

Critical reception

In September 1973, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the album Killing Me Softly includes a hit title track and "other potential hits," calling it one of Roberta Flack's better albums. John S. Wilson of The New York Times noted that Flack and producer Joel Dorn avoided "the pitfalls of overproducing," which he believed might have happened due to the long time spent making the album. Billboard described the record as a "delicate, introspective work" by Flack, who the magazine called a "masterful interpreter of clean lyrics fusing a sophisticated pop sound with that dark side of the blues."

In December 1973, Robert Christgau of Creem magazine gave the album a "C" grade, comparing Flack unfavorably to Jesse Colin Young and stating that she "always makes you wonder whether she's going to fall asleep before you do." A 1992 retrospective review in The Rolling Stone Album Guide gave the album two-and-a-half out of five stars, calling its music "innocuous." Later, AllMusic's Ron Wynn gave the album four and a half stars, noting that it continued the style of Flack's earlier albums Chapter Two and Quiet Fire, with "simmering ballads, declarative message songs, and better-than-average up-tempo numbers."