Roberta Flack - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Cover)

Possibly the most beautiful song ever writen......My favourite. This is my rendition.

SONG INFORMATION: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a 1957 folk song written by political singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who was later to become his wife.

MacColl wrote the song for Seeger, also a folk singer, after she asked him to pen a song for a play she was in. MacColl wrote the song and taught it to Seeger over the phone. The alternative version of the creation of this song is that MacColl was challenged by a friend to write a love song, with no politics. This song was the result.

MacColl and Seeger included the song in their repertoire, when performing in folk clubs around Britain. During the 1960s, it was recorded by various folk singers (including a version as a solo guitar instrumental by Bert Jansch).

The song entered the pop mainstream when it was released by Roberta Flack, in 1972. The Flack version was much slower than the original: an early solo recording by Seeger, for example, clocked in at two and a half minutes long, whereas Flack's is more than twice that length. It was subsequently covered by numerous other artists.

MacColl was an absolute folk purist (for example he did not approve of English people singing Scottish folk songs, or vice versa) and reputedly hated almost all the recordings of the song, including Flack's. His daughter-in-law is quoted as saying: "He hated all of them. He had a special section in his record collection for them, entitled 'The Chamber of Horrors'. He said that the Elvis version was like Romeo at the bottom of the Post Office Tower singing up to Juliet. And the other versions, he thought, were travesties: bludgeoning, histrionic and lacking in grace."


The song was popularized by Roberta Flack and became a breakout hit for the singer after it appeared in the film Play Misty for Me. Though the song first appeared on Flack's 1969 album First Take, Flack's recording of the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year three years later.

Flack's slower, more sensual version was used by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 directorial debut Play Misty for Me during a lovemaking scene. With the new exposure, Atlantic Records cut the song down to four minutes and released it to radio. It became an extremely successful single in the United States, hitting number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1972 and remaining there for six weeks; the song also spent six weeks at the top of Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks. It reached number fourteen on the UK Singles Chart. The success of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" essentially launched Flack's career as a popular singer, and the single became one of her signature songs.

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[ashleighedavis]

pleasantly surprised.

[totethatgun]

@ashleighedavis Thank you ashleigh. -Kenny

[dontrytofixme]

your voice is really something, and just controls the song beautifully. its such a haunting rendition, but its really amazing, really really!

[totethatgun]

@dontrytofixme Thanks for the kind comment.......I really appreciate you listening and taking the time to comment in the kind way that you did.....Thanks! -Kenny

[Rebecca31165]

beautiful

[totethatgun]

@Rebecca31165 Thank you Rebecca. -Kenny

[windmill1947]

Wow Kenny...I never liked this song until now...I have never heard a version of this song that impressed me until I heard you...You sing it so beautifully and I actually love it now..But only by you...Thanks for giving me a chance to hear it...Many, many, stars..

Take care

Kay...

[michaelsacoma]

Clearly a song that means a lot to you, Kenny. You sung this with so much emotion, I was seriously impressed! Your best recording so far - and the sound quality was great! Well done, you should be proud of this one.

[wayahbk]

Make that exalted state. Sorry for this lapse. It's late and my meds are taking effect.

[wayahbk]

An Addendum to my previous post. I should also have added that Roberta's was also done at a slightly slower tempo. With my previous post, all those things taken together elevated Roberta's to the exhalsted relm of "A Classic."

[wayahbk]

This is close to the one done by Roberta Flack just shorter. The version done by Roberta was longer and thereby raised th quality of the song/rendention up to a classic that no other rendition can ever have a chance or hope of achieving. Roberta's rendition is the standard to which all other versiions will be measured against and, of course, found lacking.

[56AngelFallen]

Hauntingly beautiful, brings out emotions which are connected directly to the soul

[JamesRoneyMusic]

*This song is not meant to sound sad as there is nothing sad in the lyrics. Quite the contrary, the lyrics are immensely beautiful and should be sung with feelings of heavenly Love. If be chance you still prefer this lovely version of Kenny's (over the other 2 below) then it's because it speaks more directly to your heart as you feel Kenny's loneliness found in his voice. God bless.

Roberta Flack (*definitive version)

youtube.com/watch?v=5JWAmF-Z4r­4

Celine Dion

youtube.com/watch?v=jnXNt4fJqj­4

[JamesRoneyMusic]

@windmill1947, the song is not meant to sound sad as there is nothing sad in the lyrics. Quite the contrary, the lyrics are immensely beautiful and should be sung with feelings of heavenly Love. You said you never heard a version of this song that impressed you which makes me wonder if you ever heard the following two versions, and if so, then it's just that this lovely version of Kenny's speaks more directly to your heart as you feel his loneliness. God bless. youtube.com/watch?v=jnXNt4fJqj­4