The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

The harmony blends folk song simplicity with jazz-influenced voicings and orchestral lushness. The core progressions are diatonic and accessible, but the use of major seventh chords, the borrowed iv minor, and the spacious rubato phrasing give the song a harmonic sophistication that elevates it beyond a standard folk ballad. The slow tempo allows each chord change to resonate deeply, making the harmony feel inevitable rather than predictable.

Ewan MacColl wrote the song after Peggy Seeger, who was working for a radio show in Los Angeles, told him the producers wanted a 'hopeful love song' because her folk repertoire was mostly sad. MacColl composed it quickly and sang it to Seeger over the telephone from England. Although written about their relationship, Seeger said she did not interpret it as a love song at the time because she was not yet in love with him, and she performed it from his perspective.

Originally written in 1957 by Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, this folk ballad was transformed by Roberta Flack into a spare, hypnotic soul masterpiece on her 1969 debut album First Take. A sleeper hit propelled by Clint Eastwood's film Play Misty for Me, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 and swept the 1973 Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year.