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]

First Take
Studio album by Roberta Flack
Released	June 20, 1969 (1969-06-20)
Recorded	February 24–26, 1969
Studio	Atlantic, New York City
Genre	Folk jazz^[1] vocal jazz soul R&B
Length	46:08
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Joel Dorn
Roberta Flack chronology
First Take (1969) Chapter Two (1970)
Singles from First Take
"Compared to What" / "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" Released: August 14, 1969 "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" / "Trade Winds" Released: January 24, 1972

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
Pitchfork	9.5/10^[3]
Rolling Stone	favorable^[4]

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]

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.

See also

• Roberta Flack discography
• List of number-one albums of 1972 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 1972 (U.S.)

References

1. 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...
2. Bush, John. First Take at AllMusic
3. Nelson, Elizabeth (26 December 2020). "Roberta Flack: First Take". Pitchfork. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
4. Lester, Julius. . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
5. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
6. "Roberta Flack - Singer, Songwriter, Musician". www.robertaflack.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
7. store.soulmusic.com . Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2020. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)^{[title missing]}
8. "Canadian album certifications – Roberta Flack – First Take". Music Canada. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
9. "American album certifications – Roberta Flack – First Take". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved September 23, 2022.

External links

• "First Take" at discogs