“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack

Ewan MacColl, the British political songwriter, wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in 1957 for Peggy Seeger, the woman who would later become his third wife. Plenty of singers had a go at it through the 1960s, but Roberta Flack's reading on her 1969 album First Take is the one that stuck, patient and unhurried, every word given room to land.

Joel Dorn produced, and the setting is built around Flack herself at the piano, with Ron Carter on double bass, Ray Lucas on drums, and a string section of violins, violas and cellos around her voice. It took a few years to catch fire, but in 1972 it became a huge international hit: Billboard named it the top Hot 100 single of the year, and it won Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.