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\n\tForever No. 1<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a\u00a0<\/em>Billboard\u00a0series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer \u2014 a\u00a0<\/em>Billboard Hot 100<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0No. 1 single \u2014 by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor the late Roberta Flack by looking at the first of her three Hot 100-toppers: Her singularly exquisite and rapturous reading of the folk ballad \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen you express your feelings about the first time you ever see a great love, you don\u2019t rush the story,\u201d the legendary Roberta Flack<\/a> told Songwriter Universe<\/a> in 2020 \u2014 a sentiment applicable to her breakthrough rendition of \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d in multiple ways. <\/p>\n \n\tOne is that the song certainly took its time catching on commercially. Flack, who died<\/a> on Monday (Feb. 24) at age 88, had shown prodigious musical talent as a vocalist and pianist from an early age, becoming one of the youngest Howard University students ever when she was accepted to the HBCU at age 15. By the late 1960s, she was already both a music teacher and a live performer of some renown, setting up residence as the in-house singer at the D.C. restaurant and jazz club Mr. Henry\u2019s \u2014 where she was discovered by American jazz great Les McCann, who immediately hooked her up with Atlantic Records. An album was quickly recorded and released: 1969\u2019s First Take<\/em>, an eclectic and inspired debut whose centerpiece was its soulful rendering of the \u201950s folk song \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tInitially, the song went nowhere. It was not even released as a single originally, with the label instead opting to release a split of her funky version of McCann\u2019s jazz standard \u201cCompared to What\u201d and a more meditative cover of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen\u2019s ballad \u201cHey, That\u2019s No Way to Say Goodbye.\u201d But that single also caught little mainstream attention, and the critically well-received First Take<\/em> debuted at an underwhelming No. 195 on the Billboard 200<\/a> dated Jan. 31, 1970, held at that position for a second week, then dropped off the chart altogether. Flack\u2019s next two albums, 1970\u2019s Chapter Two<\/em> and 1971\u2019s Quiet Fire<\/em>, would fare better, both reaching the top 40 \u2014 and by the latter\u2019s release, Flack had also found Hot 100 success as a partner with Atlantic labelmate Donny Hathaway, with their duet on the Carole King-penned \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend\u201d peaking at No. 29 on the chart in August \u201971, just two weeks after James Taylor\u2019s version topped the ranking.<\/p>\n \n\tBut it was \u201cThe First Time\u201d that would, belatedly, mark Flack\u2019s true commercial breakthrough. In October 1971, the recording was featured \u2014 in full \u2014 during a love montage from the movie Play Misty for Me<\/em>, Clint Eastwood\u2019s proto-erotic thriller directorial debut. The film was only a modest hit, but its use of \u201cFirst Time\u201d made for arguably its most striking moment: Two-thirds of the way through the movie, which predominantly focuses on Eastwood\u2019s radio DJ character David seducing and then being stalked by overzealous fan Evelyn (Jessica Walter), the movie takes a long break from the mounting tension to feature David rekindling his romance with on-and-off girlfriend Tobie (Donna Mills). The sequence, of long walks on the beach and through the woods, of making love by the fire and in the grass and even of skinny dipping in the brook, could easily have been mawkish and eye-rolling \u2014 but soundtracked by the spellbinding \u201cFace,\u201d it instead served as the film\u2019s emotional climax, and increased public demand for the song to the point where it was finally released as a single, three calendar years after first appearing on First Take<\/em>.<\/p>\n