Roberta Flack, the first person to win back-to-back Record of the Year Grammies, announced that she can no longer sing. The 85-year-old chanteuse is suffering from ALS, which is also robbing her of her speaking ability.
This song gave Flack, who spent several years teaching music and singing in Washington, DC, clubs before going pro in the late ’60s, her first No. 1 record and Grammy win, but it broke out because Clint Eastwood featured it in his 1972 directorial debut, “Play Misty for Me.” Flack scored the Grammy again the next year with “Killing Me Softly.”
“The First Time” was written by Scottish folk singer and labor organizer Ewan MacColl at the urging of his paramour, Peggy Seeger, who pointed out that he always wrote topical songs, never love songs. He reportedly disliked every cover of the song, and there were a lot of them among the folkies of the day. Here’s how Peggy sang it, with MacColl on guitar.
Flack also recorded two LPs of duets with Donny Hathaway, and won a Grammy for best pop duet in 1972 with this tune.
