Super Fly (soundtrack)

Super Fly is the third studio album by American soul musician Curtis Mayfield, released in July 1972 on Curtom Records. It was released as the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation film of the same name. Widely considered a classic of 1970s soul and funk music, Super Fly was a nearly immediate hit. Its sales were bolstered by two million-selling singles, "Freddie's Dead" (number 2 R&B charts, number 4 Pop charts) and the title track (number 5 R&B, number 8 Pop). Super Fly is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.[11]

Super Fly
Soundtrack album / studio album by
Curtis Mayfield
ReleasedJuly 11, 1972
RecordedDecember 1971 – May 1972
StudioRCA Studios
(Chicago, Illinois)
Bell Sound Studios
(New York, New York)
Genre
Length37:05
LabelCurtom
ProducerCurtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield chronology
Roots
(1971)		 Super Fly
(1972)		 Back to the World
(1973)
Alternative cover
Deluxe 25th anniversary edition cover
Singles from Super Fly
  1. "Freddie's Dead"
    Released: July 1972
  2. "Superfly"
    Released: October 1972
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Billboard(favorable)[2]
Christgau's Record GuideA–[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
Pitchfork9.1/10[5]
Q[6]
Rolling Stone(favorable) 1972[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 2004[8]
Sputnikmusic[9]
Vibe(favorable)[10]

Super Fly, along with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971), was one of the pioneering soul concept albums, with its then-unique socially aware lyrics about poverty and drug abuse making the album stand out.[12][13] The film and the soundtrack may be perceived as dissonant, since the film holds rather ambiguous views on drug dealers, whereas Curtis Mayfield's position is far more critical. Like What's Going On, the album was a surprise hit that record executives felt had little chance at significant sales. Due to its success, Mayfield was tapped for several film soundtracks over the course of the decade.

Release

Super Fly was originally released in 1972 on Curtom Records in both LP and eight-track formats.[14] It also featured distribution in countries outside of the United States, including Italy, Germany, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[14] On November 11, 1997, Rhino Records released a 25th Anniversary collection of the album with a bonus disc of demo versions of songs, radio spots, and interviews.[15] In 1999, Rhino Records reissued the album with two bonus tracks.[16] On December 11, 2001, the British record label Charly Records re-released the album with several bonus tracks.[17]

Critical reception

Music critics lauded Super Fly.[12] Rolling Stone's Bob Donat was favorable of Mayfield's anti-drug and self-liberation themes, and called Super Fly "not only a superior, imaginative soundtrack, but fine funky music as well and the best of Curtis Mayfield's four albums made since he left the Impressions".[7] In a 2004 review of the album, Rolling Stone gave Super Fly five out of five stars and cited it as Mayfield's "creative breakthrough".[8] Rock critic Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album an A- and lauded Mayfield's songwriting. Christgau also wrote that "these songs speak for (and to) the ghetto's victims rather than its achievers (cf. 'The Other Side of Town', on Curtis), transmitting bleak lyrics through uncompromisingly vivacious music. Message: both candor and rhythm are essential to our survival".[3] John Bush of AllMusic praised the album's lyrical substance and sound, calling it a "melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass".[1] On its significance, Bush concluded by stating:

Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come. It stands alongside Saturday Night Fever and Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols as one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music.[1]

— John Bush

Accolades
  • In the Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2002), writer Colin Larkin gave the album a five-star rating.[18]
  • In 2003, VH1 named Super Fly the 63rd greatest album of all time.[19]
  • The title track was selected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".[20]
  • In 2003, the album was ranked number 69 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time,[21] and 72 in a 2012 revised list.[22]
  • The album is ranked number 986 in All-Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000).[23]
  • In 2019, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[24]

Track listing

Original LP

All songs were written and composed by Curtis Mayfield.[25]

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Little Child Runnin' Wild"5:23
2."Pusherman"5:04
3."Freddie's Dead"5:27
4."Junkie Chase" (instrumental)1:36
Side two
No.TitleLength
5."Give Me Your Love (Love Song)"4:20
6."Eddie You Should Know Better"2:16
7."No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)"4:53
8."Think" (instrumental)3:43
9."Superfly"3:55

Reissues
1997 Rhino Deluxe 25th Anniversary Collection (Disc one) / 1999 Rhino reissue
No.TitleLength
10."Freddie's Dead (Theme from Superfly)" (single mix)3:20
11."Superfly" (single mix)3:08
1997 Rhino Deluxe 25th Anniversary Collection (Disc two)
No.TitleLength
1."Ghetto Child" (demo version of "Little Child Runnin' Wild")3:18
2."Pusherman" (alternate mix)6:10
3."Freddie's Dead" (instrumental version)4:48
4."Junkie Chase (Instrumental)" (full-length version)4:18
5."No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)" (instrumental version)4:36
6."Militant March"0:54
7."Eddie You Should Know Better" (instrumental version)2:17
8."Radio Spot #1"0:28
9."The Underground" (demo)3:13
10."Check Out Your Mind" (instrumental version)4:06
11."Radio Spot #2"0:28
12."Curtis Mayfield interview on Superfly film and songwriting"7:02

Personnel

Charts
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See also
  • List of number-one albums of 1972 (U.S.)
  • List of number-one R&B albums of 1972 (U.S.)

Notes
  1. Bush, John. Review: Super Fly. AllMusic. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  2. Columnist. "Review: Super Fly". Billboard: July 1972.
  3. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: M". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 7, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  4. Hilburn, Robert. Review: Super Fly. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-08-05. The 1997 reissue of Super Fly was rated three out of four stars by critic Robert Hilburn. However, Hilburn concludes the review by explaining that the original would have been rated four stars, barring the additions of the reissue, stating "Yet there isn't enough additional material to justify, for most listeners, a second disc, causing what would be a four-star single-disc package to be docked a star".
  5. Smith, Mychal. Review: Super Fly. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  6. Columnist. "Review: Super Fly Archived 2009-12-01 at the Wayback Machine". Q: 128. September 1994.
  7. Donat, Bob. Review: Super Fly. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  8. Hoard, Christian. "Review: Super Fly". Rolling Stone: 523–524. November 2, 2004.
  9. Butler, Nick. Staff Rating: Super Fly. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  10. Staff. "100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century: Super Fly". Vibe: 164. December 1999.
  11. "The Most Memorable Soundtrack Songs That Name-Check Their Movies". MTV.
  12. Boraman, Greg. Review: Super Fly. BBC Music. Retrieved 2014-05-08.
  13. Heller, Jason. Review: Super Fly Archived 2008-07-06 at the Wayback Machine. The Yale Herald. Retrieved 2014-05-08.
  14. Super Fly (Album, EP). Discogs. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  15. Unterberger, Richie. "Superfly [Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition] album review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
  16. Bush, John. "Superfly [Rhino] album review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
  17. Bush, John. "Superfly [Charly] album review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
  18. Larkin, Colin. "Review: Super Fly". Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music: March 1, 2002.
  19. "2001 VH1 Cable Music Channel All Time Album Top 100". VH1. Archived from the original on 2009-02-04. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  20. "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  21. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  22. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  23. "Rocklist". Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  24. Andrews, Travis M. (March 20, 2019). "Jay-Z, a speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and 'Schoolhouse Rock!' among recordings deemed classics by Library of Congress". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  25. Super Fly (Vinyl opening flap). Curtis Mayfield. Chicago, IL, United States: Curtom. 1972. CRS 8014-ST.CS1 maint: others (link)
  26. Michael A. Gonzalez, "Waxpoetics #38", page 89

References
  • Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  • Colin Larkin (2002). Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Edition 4. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-923-0.
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