First Take (album)

First Take is the debut album by the American soul singer Roberta Flack. It was released on June 20, 1969, by Atlantic Records. After a track from this album, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", was included by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me, and the song became a number-one hit in the United States, causing the album to reach number one on the Billboard album chart and Billboard R&B album chart; furthermore, the single topped the chart for the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972, possibly the only sleeper hit to accomplish this. In the 2020 edition of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, the album was ranked number 451.^[5]

In 2019, Flack's website^[6] announced that First Take would be remastered and re-released as a limited deluxe edition of only 3,000 copies commemorating the album's fiftieth anniversary. The set includes one vinyl LP and two compact discs: one CD is the remastered album and the other contains "rare and unreleased recordings". The set was released on July 24, 2020.^[7]

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Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Compared to What"	Gene McDaniels	5:16
2.	"Angelitos Negros"	Andrés Eloy Blanco, Manuel Álvarez Maciste	6:56
3.	"Our Ages or Our Hearts"	Robert Ayers, Donny Hathaway	6:09
4.	"I Told Jesus"	Traditional; arranged by Roberta Flack	6:09
5.	"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"	Leonard Cohen	4:08
6.	"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"	Ewan MacColl	5:22
7.	"Tryin' Times"	Donny Hathaway, Leroy Hutson	5:08
8.	"Ballad of the Sad Young Men"	Fran Landesman, Tommy Wolf	7:00

Bonus tracks on 2020 anniversary edition CD
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
9.	"Compared to What" (single edit)	Gene McDaniels	4:37
10.	"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (single edit)	Ewan MacColl	4:20
11.	"Trade Winds"	Ralph MacDonald, William Salter	5:37

2020 anniversary edition bonus disc
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"All the Way" (live)	Sammy Cahn, James Van Hausen	8:39
2.	"This Could Be the Start of Something"	Steve Allen	1:23
3.	"Groove Me"	King Floyd	4:19
4.	"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"	Jimmy Cox	6:24
5.	"Hush-a-Bye"	Traditional; arranged by Roberta Flack	5:33
6.	"Afro Blue"	Mongo Santamaría, Oscar Brown	9:21
7.	"It's Way Past Suppertime"	Les McCann, Vicki Arnold	3:53
8.	"Frankie and Johnny"	Traditional; arranged by Roberta Flack	7:15
9.	"On the Street Where You Live"	Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Lowe	2:45
10.	"The House Song"	Noel Paul Stookey, Robert Bannard	5:54
11.	"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"	Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson	3:25
12.	"The Song Is Love"	Dave Dixon, Richard Kniss, Mary Travers, Noel Paul Stookey, Peter Yarrow	5:20
13.	"To Sir with Love"	Don Black, Mark London	8:27

Personnel

Roberta Flack – piano, vocals
Bucky Pizzarelli – guitars
Ron Carter – bass
Ray Lucas – drums, percussion
Seldon Powell, Frank Wess – saxophone
Charles McCracken, George Ricci – cello
Benny Powell – trombone
Jimmy Nottingham, Joe Newman – trumpet
Emanuel Green, Gene Orloff – violin
Alfred Brown, Selwart Clarke, Theodore Israel – viola
William S. Fischer – horn & string arrangements, string conducting

Technical

William Arlt – recording engineer
Bob Liftin – remixing engineer
Stanislaw Zagorski – design
Ken Heinen – photography

Chart positions

Chart (1972)	Peak position
Billboard Top LPs	1
Billboard Top Soul Albums	1
Billboard Jazz Albums	3

Certifications

Certifications for "First Take"
Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)^[8]	Gold	50,000^{^}
United States (RIAA)^[9]	Platinum	1,000,000^{^}
^{^} Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

^ Breihan, Tom (February 25, 2019). "The Number Ones: Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"". Stereogum. Retrieved June 18, 2023. The album is a total stunner, a florid and lovely jazz-folk meditation...
^ Bush, John. First Take at AllMusic
^ Nelson, Elizabeth (26 December 2020). "Roberta Flack: First Take". Pitchfork. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
^ Lester, Julius. "Roberta Flack: First Take : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
^ "Roberta Flack - Singer, Songwriter, Musician". www.robertaflack.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
^ store.soulmusic.com https://web.archive.org/web/20210818125821/https://store.soulmusic.com/first-take-50th-anniversary-deluxe-edition-1.html. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2020. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)^{[title missing]}
^ "Canadian album certifications – Roberta Flack – First Take". Music Canada. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
^ "American album certifications – Roberta Flack – First Take". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved September 23, 2022.

External links

"First Take" at discogs

v t e Roberta Flack
Studio albums	First Take (1969) Chapter Two (1970) Quiet Fire (1971) Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (1972) Killing Me Softly (1973) Feel Like Makin' Love (1975) Blue Lights in the Basement (1977) Roberta Flack (1978) Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway (1980) I'm the One (1982) Born to Love (1983) Oasis (1988) Set the Night to Music (1991) Roberta (1994) The Christmas Album (1997)
Live albums	Live & More (1980) At Her Best – Live (2008)
Soundtrack albums	Soul To Soul (1971) Bustin' Loose (1981)
Compilation albums	The Best of Roberta Flack (1981) Greatest Hits (1984) Softly with These Songs: The Best of Roberta Flack (1993) The Very Best of Roberta Flack (2006)
Singles	"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" "You've Got a Friend" "Where Is the Love" "Killing Me Softly with His Song" "Jesse" (1973) "Feel Like Makin' Love" "The Closer I Get to You" "If Ever I See You Again" "Making Love" "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" "Oasis" "Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)"
Filmography	Soul To Soul (1971)
Related articles	Discography Donny Hathaway

This page was last edited on 14 April 2024, at 01:57

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