“Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known,” McCann wrote in the liner notes for Flack’s debut album, First Take. “I laughed, cried, and screamed for more … she alone had the voice.”
Rise to Stardom
Flack’s debut album, First Take (1969), and its follow-up, Chapter Two (1970), initially did not garner much attention.
However, everything changed when Clint Eastwood decided to use “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in a pivotal love scene in Play Misty for Me (1971). The song was released as a single in February 1972 and skyrocketed to No. 1, spending six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
Roberta Flack and Clint Eastwood’s Deal
In a 2012 interview with The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Flack recalled her surprise when Eastwood personally called her:
“I’m in my house in Virginia. My mom was living with me at the time. The phone rings and she said, ‘Roberta, it’s Clint Eastwood.’ I thought somebody was playing a joke,” she said.
