As the well-documented lore suggests, Roberta Flack's mainstream success story begins when her dreamy cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," written by English folk artist Ewan MacColl for his wife Peggy Seeger, was used in a love scene between Clint Eastwood and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.".
Picking one standout from “First Take” is a fool's errand, but listeners would be wise to spend time with Flack's cover of the Leonard Cohen classic “Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye,” a strong case for a reimagination eclipsing the original.
The song would win again in the ‘90s, when hip-hop trio the Fugees’ would offer their masterful take on Flack's cover and introduce much of the world to singer Lauryn Hill's gift.
Flack will likely be remembered for her classics — “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” and "Killing Me Softly with His Song” among them.
Beyond Flack's soaring vocal performance — delivered atop a robust string section and nylon-string guitars — the song serves as an anthem against racial discrimination and a stunning example of the singer's cross-boundary approach to music making.
