First Take

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 Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, the album was ranked number 451. In 2019, Flack's website 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. Track listing 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