Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly soundtrack album includes the song “Freddie’s Dead.”
Super Fly was released by Curtom Records on July 11, 1972, as the soundtrack to Gordon Parks Jr.’s blaxploitation film Super Fly. Curtis Mayfield wrote, produced, arranged, and performed the music, creating an album that worked both as a film score and as a standalone soul and funk record.
“Freddie’s Dead” refers to Fat Freddie, a character in the film who is run over by a car. The song was issued as the album’s first single and became one of Mayfield’s biggest solo hits, reaching number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the R&B chart. In the film itself, the music appears primarily in instrumental form rather than with the song’s full lyrics.
The album is often confused with Mayfield’s other records, including Roots and Back to the World. Those were neighboring releases in his solo career, but neither contains “Freddie’s Dead.” The Super Fly album also includes the title track and “Pusherman,” making it one of the defining soundtrack albums of 1970s soul.