Curtom 8014
Producer: Curtis Mayfield
Track listing: Little Child Runnin Wild / Pusherman / Freddie’s Dead / Junkie Chase / Give Me Your Love / Eddie You Should Know Better / No Thing on My / Think / Superfly
October 21, 1972
4 weeks
By 1972, Curtis Mayfield had already earned his place in the pop music history books as one of the most important forces in R&B. Originally a gospel singer, Mayfield formed the Impressions with friend Jerry Butler in 1957. During the mid-’60s Mayfield led the Impressions through several classic hits, such as “We’re a Winner” and “People Get Ready,” which were innovative both musically and lyrically. While leading a new soul movement known as the Chicago Sound, Mayfield simultaneously managed to capture the trials, tribulations, and hopes of the civil rights movement.
In 1970, Mayfield went solo, as the Impressions carried on. Mayfield’s first three solo efforts, Curtis, Curtis/Live!, and Roots, were fairly successful, each cracking the top 40, yet it would take Superfly to put him on top.
In late 1971, after performing the first of two nights at Lincoln Center in New York, Mayfield was approached by screenwriter Phillip Fenty and film producer Sig Shore. Backstage, Fenty showed Mayfield his script for Superfly.
“At that point in my life I was ready for anything. Anything positive,” Mayfield says. “I was more than happy to read over the script.”
After more than a decade in the music business, Mayfield had a pretty impressive list of credits. Aside from his work with the Impressions, he’d produced and written material for several acts. In 1970, he launched his third record company, Curtom.
“Having done so many things in the business, it was a challenge for me to possibly score a movie,” Mayfield says.
“I was all into it. Within the script itself, I wrote in areas where music should be, what song should be taken from parts of the dialogue. I was very turned on about doing it.”
Isaac Hayes’s Shaft had already proven that contemporary soul music tied into a blaxploitation film blockbuster could make for a huge hit record. Yet Mayfield’s Superfly was hardly a carbon copy of Shaft.
The lyrics in songs such as “Freddie’s Dead” and “Pusherman” were a stark contrast to the glitzy images of violence and drugs featured in the film. “Even though I loved the script and the way it read, I chose to not ride along the glitter and the surface of the movie itself,” Mayfield says. “I didn’t want it to appear as a Coke commercial. I wanted to write in depth and maybe those who watched it would understand.”
Mayfield’s message was received as alarming, “Freddie’s Dead,” centered around a character who served as a fall guy for a drug dealer in the film, became an unlikely hit single. It climbed to number four with a unique sound that combined Latin-flavored percussion, funky guitar, and Mayfield’s trademark falsetto.
Buoyed by the single and the buzz surrounding the film, Superfly hit Number One in its ninth week on the chart.
“I am still very proud of that work,” says Mayfield, who went on to score several other films. “We showed the industry that music was very important to lock in with the dialogue and that you didn’t need a football lot and $250,000 to do it.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of October 21, 1972
1. Superfly, Curtis Mayfield
2. Carney, Leon Russell
3. Days of the Future Passed, Moody Blues
4. Never a Dull Moment, Rod Stewart
5. Chicago V, Chicago