the first time ever i saw your face

Roberta Flack had her breakout hit with this folk standard three years after it was released on her debut album. Ewan MacColl had written the song for his future wife Peggy Seeger in 1957. She was in a play and called him asking for advice on a song for a romantic scene. He wrote this song in less than an hour and taught it to her over the phone. 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' has been covered by many diverse artists; but it was the slow and sensual version by Roberta Flack that became a worldwide smash in 1973 after it was used by Clint Eastwood in his directorial debut 'Play Misty For Me'. Flack remembers: "I was so young and innocent in the entertainment business back then in the late 1960s. Do you know the love story behind the song? Peggy Seeger was at a folk festival in Canada in the late ‘50s with her husband, and Ewan was with his wife there. Apparently he looked at Peggy and wrote the song: I thought the sun rose in your eyes, and the moon and stars were the gifts you gave, to the dark and empty skies. Wow. Peggy eventually became Ewan's wife." Flack met Seeger after MacColl had died: "She paid me a powerful compliment. She said she loved what I had done with the song and that she was sure my rendition was exactly what Ewan would have wanted to say." 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' went to the top of the charts in Australia, Canada, and the US pop and adult contemporary charts. It also won a Grammy for Song Of The Year and drove her album 'First Take' to the top of the album chart.

http://www.robertaflack.com/

The first time ever I saw your face

I thought the sun rose in your eyes

And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave

To the dark and the endless skies, my love

To the dark and the endless skies

And the first time ever I kissed your mouth

I felt the earth move in my hands

Like the trembling heart of a captive bird

That was there at my command, my love

That was there at my command, my love

And the first time ever I lay with you

I felt your heart so close to mine

And I knew our joy would fill the earth

And last till the end of time, my love

And it will last till the end of time, my love

The first time ever I saw your face, your face

Your face, your face

killing me softly with his song

The Fugees had their biggest hit with this slice of American pie. The composers of "Killing Me Softly with His Song", Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel refused to allow the Fugees to do a rewrite of the song; but gave them permission to cover it. For their recording, the Fugees sampled 'Bonita Applebum' by A Tribe Called Quest, which had sampled the riff from 'Memory Band' by psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection. It became the second single from their final album 'The Score' and shot to number two on the US pop chart and number one in the UK where it was the biggest single of that year. It also won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by Duo or group.

Norman Gimbel recounts the genesis of the song: "I came to California in the mid-sixties. I was introduced to the Argentinean born composer named Lalo Schifrin (then of 'Mission Impossible' fame). I ended up writing songs to a number of his motion pictures. I suggested we write a Broadway Musical together. He gave me an Argentinean novel translated into English from the Spanish to read as a possible idea. Suffice it to say, we never made a musical from the book -- but in one of the chapters, the principal character describes himself as sitting alone in a bar drinking and listening to an American pianist "Killing me softly with his blues". I put it in my "idea" book for use at a future time with a parenthesis around the word "blues" and substituted the word "song" instead. Many years later, Lori Lieberman saw Don McLean in concert. I then wrote the lyric and gave it to Charles Fox to set to music."









http://www.thefugees.com/

Fugees - Killing Me Softly by hushhush112

Strumming my pain with his fingers

Singing my life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Killing me softly with his song

Telling my whole life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

I heard he sang a good song

I heard he had a style

And so I came to see him

And listen for a while

And there he was this young boy

A stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers

Singing my life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Killing me softly with his song

Telling my whole life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

I felt all flushed with fever

Embarrassed by the crowd

I felt he found my letters

And read each one out loud

I prayed that he would finish

But he just kept right on

Strumming my pain with his fingers

Singing my life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Killing me softly with his song

Telling my whole life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Strumming my pain with his fingers

Singing my life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Killing me softly with his song

Telling my whole life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Strumming my pain with his fingers

Singing my life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

Killing me softly with his song

Telling my whole life with his words

Roberta Flack's version was a number one hit in 1973. It won three Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female Performer.