Dave's Song of the Day
Freddie's Dead (Theme from "Superfly") – Curtis Mayfield
Sunday song of the day: Today’s song is from the 1972 blaxploitation film
Super Fly.
Curtis Mayfield was a member of The Impressions and had written their great 1965 hit
People Get Ready. In 1970, he left the group and embarked on a solo career. His third studio album was the soundtrack to the film
Super Fly. This album contained the song
Freddie’s Dead, which had been released as a single in July 1972, before either the film or its soundtrack album were released.
The use of
Freddie’s Dead in the actual film was just the instrumental track, without the lyrics. Parts of the instrumental were used at several points in the film, so the single version, complete with lyrics, was subtitled as
(Theme from “Superfly”), even though there was another song on the soundtrack album titled
Superfly that was about the main character instead of the secondary character of Freddie. This parenthetical title was removed on the album.
The song concerned the character Freddie, who the film’s main character, Youngblood Priest, forces into helping him in a criminal deal. Freddie is later killed when he tries to escape from police and is hit by a car.
Freddie’s Dead hit #2 on the
Billboard R&B chart and #4 on the overall
Billboard Hot 100. With the follow-up,
Superfly, reaching #8 on the Hot 100, and both songs selling over a million singles each, the soundtrack generated considerable interest in the film. Oddly, the film and the album used the two-word title
Super Fly, while
Freddie’s Dead‘s secondary title
(Theme from “Superfly”) and the
Superfly song itself spelled it as one word.
Mayfield continued with a successful career for many years afterward. In 1990, a lighting structure fell on him at an outdoor concert, with the injuries leaving him paralyzed below the neck. In 1999 he died due to complications from diabetes.
The ska/funk/metal band Fishbone released a cover version of
Freddie’s Dead in 1988.
Curtis Mayfield, 1972
Fishbone, 1988
Tomorrow: After all these changes that you put me through