Super Fly is the third studio album by American soul musician Curtis Mayfield, released on July 11, 1972, by Curtom Records as the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film of the same name. The album was Mayfield's first full soundtrack, and only his third solo effort since leaving his previous group the Impressions. The album's content was informed both by Mayfield's disagreements with the film's treatment of drugs and drug dealers as social phenomena, and his personal experiences growing up around the dangers of both. and selling over 500,000 copies domestically, with an estimated 1.5 million internationally. with performance bolstered by Billboard Hot 100 top 10 and the Norman Whitfield/Rose Royce collaboration Car Wash (1977). Due to the soundtrack's success, Mayfield was tapped to produce several film soundtracks over the course of the decade in collaboration with high-profile soul artists such as Gladys Knight & The Pips (Claudine, 1974), The Staples Singers (Let's Do It Again, 1975), and Aretha Franklin (Sparkle, 1976). The album is frequently sampled and interpolated For its lyrical messaging and influence on both contemporary soul and the nascent genres of hip-hop and rap, the album is often cited as one of the best albums of all time. – was working on Super Fly as his directorial debut and asked Mayfield and his backing band to cameo in a scene as a nightclub act in the background. Parks wanted a full song to play in the scene, which led to the beginning of soundtrack sessions. which involved an in-studio band of as many as 40 performers. Regarding the recording environment, Guitarist Craig McMullen states, "The advantage of it is, if you have a full orchestra, when you place your licks, you don't have to worry about your licks bumping. You can hear everything that's going to go down." formats, three weeks prior to the release of the accompanying film, with additional distribution handled throughout Europe and Asia by Buddah Records.The release was complicated by a dispute with arranger Johnny Pate over songwriting credit on the song "Think", which would mark the end of Mayfield and Pate's working relationship. and a 1999 reissue of the album included new mixes of "Freddie's Dead" and "Superfly" as bonus tracks.
Reception and sales
Music critics lauded Super Fly. Rolling Stones Bob Donat was favorable towards 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". Rock critic Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album an A− and lauded Mayfield's songwriting, writing 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".
In the Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2002), writer Colin Larkin gave the album a five-star rating. 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". 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".
Legacy
The album is ranked number 986 in All-Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000). In 2003, VH1 named Super Fly the 63rd greatest album of all time. The title track was selected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". In 2003, the album was ranked number 69 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 72 in a 2012 revised list, and 76 in a 2020 revised list. In 2011, NME ranked Super Fly as the 13th best film soundtrack of all time. 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".
Super Fly was a formative work in the development of the hip hop and rap genres, and has been cited as an influence and sampled by the likes of Beastie Boys, The Notorious B.I.G., Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Chance the Rapper, and Beyoncé. The singer Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums, explaining that, "I just think that's one of the best movie soundtrack albums ever...[J]ust listen to the soundtrack and you already know the whole movie. It's just killer the way he did that." Mychal Smith notes the impact Super Fly had on the genre of blaxploitation soundtracks in particular, noting Mayfield had "inspired imitations [...] such as Bobby Womack’s "Across 110th Street", James Brown’s Black Caesar, and Willie Hutch’s The Mack."
Reissues
Personnel
- Curtis Mayfield – vocals, guitar, producer
- Phil Upchurch – guitar
- Joseph Lucky Scott – bass (all tracks)
- Master Henry Gibson – percussion (all tracks)
- Tyrone McCullen – drums ("Pusherman")
- Morris Jennings – drums (all tracks except "Pusherman")
- Craig McMullen – guitar (all tracks)
- Roger Anfinsen – engineer
- Johnny Pate – orchestrator, arranger
- Glen Christensen – art direction
- Milton Sincoff – packaging
- Harry "Slip" Lepp – trombone
Charts
All charts are from Billboard.
Album
{|class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! Year
! Chart
! Peak<br />position
|-
|1972
|Top 100 Albums
|align="center"|1
|-
|1972
|Top Soul Albums
|align="center"|1
|-
|1973
|Top Jazz Albums
|align="center"|2
|-
|1988
|Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
|align="center"|88
|}
Singles
{|class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! Year
! Single
! Chart
! Peak<br />position
|-
|1972
|"Freddie's Dead"
|Hot 100
|align="center"|4
|-
|1972
|"Freddie's Dead"
|Top Soul Singles
|align="center"|2
|-
|1973
|"Superfly"
|Hot 100
|align="center"|8
|-
|1973
|"Superfly"
|Top Soul Singles
|align="center"|5
|}
See also
- List of number-one albums of 1972 (U.S.)
- List of number-one R&B albums of 1972 (U.S.)
Notes
References
External links
- Super Fly at Discogs
- From Super Fly to Super Star — By Ebony
- 100 Best Movie Soundtracks: Super Fly at Entertainment Weekly
- Anniversary Edition: Rolling Stone review — By Robert Christgau
- Collected reviews on Superseventies.com