<P> The song entered the pop mainstream when it was released by the Kingston Trio on their 1962 hit album New Frontier and in subsequent years by other pop folk groups such as Peter, Paul and Mary, The Brothers Four, and the Chad Mitchell Trio, and by Gordon Lightfoot on his debut album Lightfoot! (1966). </P> <P> MacColl made no secret of the fact that he disliked all of the cover versions of the song . His daughter - in - law wrote: "He hated all of them . He had a special section in his record collection for them, entitled' The Chamber of Horrors' . He said that the Elvis version was like Romeo at the bottom of the Post Office Tower singing up to Juliet . And the other versions, he thought, were travesties: bludgeoning, histrionic, and lacking in grace ." </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Roberta Flack on "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> It's a perfect song . Second only to "Amazing Grace, I think..."It's the kind of song that has two unique & distinct qualities: it tells a story, & it has lyrics that mean something...Because of (its meaningful lyrics) the (song) can be interpreted by a lot of people in a lot of different ways: the love of a mother for a child, for example, or (that of) two lovers ." "I wish more songs I had chosen had moved me the way that one did . I've loved (most) every song I've recorded, but that one was pretty special ." </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th> Roberta Flack on "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" </Th> </Tr>

Song the first time if ever i saw your face