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Freddie's Dead

"Freddie's Dead (Theme From Superfly)"
Freddie'sDead.jpg
Single by Curtis Mayfield
from the album Super Fly
B-side "Underground"
Released July 1972
Format 7"
Recorded 1972
Genre Funk, soul
Length 3:17 (single edit)
5:27 (album version)
Label Curtom/Buddah
CR-1975
Writer(s) Curtis Mayfield
Producer(s) Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield singles chronology
"We Got to Have Peace"
(1972)
"Freddie's Dead (Theme from Superfly)"
(1972)
"Superfly"
(1972)

"Freddie's Dead" is a song by Curtis Mayfield. It was the first single from his 1972 soundtrack album for the film Super Fly. The single was released before the Super Fly album, and in fact before the film itself was in theaters. The song peaked at #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 82 song for 1972.

The song laments the death of Fat Freddie, a character in the film who is run over by a car.

Like most of the music from the Super Fly album, "Freddie's Dead" appears in the film only in an instrumental arrangement, without any lyrics. The song's music is featured prominently in the film's opening sequence and also recurs at several other points. Because of this usage the song was subtitled "Theme from Superfly" on its single release (but not on the album). It is not to be confused with "Superfly", a different song and the second single released from the Super Fly album. The arrangement is driven by a strong bass line, wah wah guitars, and a melancholy string orchestration.

The song was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Rhythm & Blues Song but lost to "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". "Freddie's Dead" was ruled ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Song because its lyrics are not sung in the film Super Fly.

The song appears in the movie Friday in the scene where Smokey (Chris Tucker) explains to Craig (Ice Cube) how Hector got him to ingest angel dust while smoking marijuana and how he hadn't been "right ever since," prompting him to say "fuck you" every time he sees him.


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