The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face Lyrics

"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. At the time the couple were lovers, although MacColl was married to someone else. 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 1969. 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 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." Roberta Flack version 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, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts in April 1972 for six week runs on each. It reached number fourteen on the UK Singles Chart. Céline Dion version "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is the third single from Celine Dion's All the Way… A Decade of Song album. It was released on March 27, 2000, in the United Kingdom and Ireland only. Celine Dion performed it earlier, during the Let's Talk About Love Tour and on her CBS TV special in 1998. She also sang it on a German TV show at the end of 1999. The song was included later on the 2004 Miracle album. The music video was taken from Dion's second CBS TV special of 1999 and released in 2000. It was directed by Bud Schaetzle and included later on her All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video DVD. Ewan MacColl himself made no secret of the fact that he disliked almost all of the cover versions of the song, referring to them collectively as "the Chamber of Horrors". Read more details about this song at English Wikipedia