The Fugees' stripped-down adaptation of Killing Me Softly - led by Lauryn's golden, emotionally-raw voice - was based on Roberta Flack's version of the track, itself a huge hit in 1973. In 1997 it won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The track topped the charts in most countries, except their US homeland, where it peaked at Number 2. Killing Me Softly spent the first of five non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 on June 2, replacing Three Lions by Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds. In fact, the track was so popular with the British public that the group's label Sony Music had to fly in extra stock from The Netherlands to meet demand, after shifting 484,000 copies in its first three weeks. The album's first single, Fu-Gee-La, reached Number 21 in April, but it was the follow-up, Killing Me Softly, that sent them stratospheric.
FUGEES THE SCORE FULL ALBUM 1996 FULL
MORE: Fugees Official Chart history in full The record was well received and had moderate sales - enough to build considerable anticipation around their second record, The Score.
They originally named themselves Refugee Camp but had trimmed the name down by the time they released their 1994 debut album, Blunted On Reality. The hip-hop trio formed in South Orange, New Jersey in 1992, consisting of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel. The Fugees' Killing Me Softly was a runaway hit in 1996 and, after five weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, narrowly finished as the UK's top seller of the year with 1.17m sales (compared to 1.16m for Wannabe).
Looking back at 1996, you'd perhaps expect the all-conquering Spice Girls to claim the year's best-selling single with their debut Wannabe - but there was one song that proved even more popular that year.
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