MacColl also wrote the infamous, ‘Dirty Old Town, ‘ in 1956 which was covered by The Dubliners, Rod Stewart, Roger Whittaker and The Pogues, to name a few. That was the only time he ever sang the song which went on to become one of the greatest love songs of all time. “ It was a hell of a way to woo me back!” says Peggy. He sang it down a crackling transatlantic phone line to Peggy who had returned to the USA, unwilling to continue an affair with a married man.

Boost your streams, discover new fans and increase sales with the Indie Spotify Bible.‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ was written for Seeger by her then-estranged lover Ewan MacColl in early 1957. Submit your songs to us via SubmitHub, MusoSoup or MySphera to be guaranteed a listen. Take a look at some of the other posts in this series and don’t forget to follow the playlist. How well will his new version do…? So which version is the best? PEGGY’s original, ROBERTA’s classic, CELINE’s cover or JAMES’ new It was released as a single in the UK in early 2000, reaching No.19 there.īritish reality show singers Leona Lewis (in 2007) and Matt Cardle (in 2012) have also covered the song while in 2020, singer James Blake has recorded a new version of the song, once again from a male perspective. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” has been covered many times since, but most notably by Celine Dion in 1999 for her best of “ All The Way…A Decade Of Song” album. It was released as a single and became her ‘breakout hit’ when it topped the US singles chart as well as in Australia and Canada, making No.14 in the UK.

Numerous other acts later ‘covered’ it but the song’s first major chart appearance came in 1972 when singer Roberta Flack (b.1937) performed the song for her album “Quiet Fire”. Its first appearance came in 1962 when US band The Kingston Trio recorded it for their album “New Frontier”. It was never released commercially and thus has no chart of sales stats for it. The song, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, was originally recorded by Peggy Seeger in 1957 “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was written by Ewan MacColl (1915-1989), father of Kirsty MacColl, in 1957 and recorded by Margaret ‘Peggy’ Seeger (b.1935), who later married MacColl.

The first time ever peggy seeger