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 with the song becoming a number 1 hit in the United States, the album reached number 1 on the Billboard album chart and Billboard R&B album chart. In the 2020 edition of Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Albums of All Time" list, the album was ranked number 451.[4]

First Take
Studio album by
Roberta Flack
ReleasedJune 20, 1969 (1969-06-20)
RecordedFebruary 24–26, 1969
StudioAtlantic Studios, New York City
GenreVocal jazz, soul, R&B
Length46:08
LabelAtlantic
ProducerJoel Dorn
Roberta Flack chronology
First Take
(1969)		 Chapter Two
(1970)
Singles from First Take
  1. "Compared to What" / "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"
    Released: August 14, 1969
  2. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" / "Trade Winds"
    Released: January 24, 1972
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Pitchfork9.5/10[2]
Rolling Stonefavorable[3]

In 2019, Flack's website[5] 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.[6]

Track listing
  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

Personnel
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

Single
Year Single Chart Position
1972 "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Billboard Adult Contemporary 1
1972 "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Billboard Pop Singles 1
1972 "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Billboard Soul Singles 4

See also

References
  1. Bush, John. First Take at AllMusic
  2. Nelson, Elizabeth (26 December 2020). "Roberta Flack: First Take". Pitchfork. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  3. Lester, Julius. "Roberta Flack: First Take : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  4. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  5. http://www.robertaflack.com/index.php, retrieved May 4, 2020
  6. https://store.soulmusic.com/first-take-50th-anniversary-deluxe-edition-1.html, retrieved May 4, 2020
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