Many of [Ewan] MacColl's best-known songs were written for the theatre. For example, he wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" very quickly at the request of [his wife, Peggy] Seeger, who needed it for use in a play she was appearing in. He taught it to her by long-distance telephone while she was on tour in the United States (from where MacColl had been barred because of his Communist past). Seeger said that MacColl used to send her tapes to listen to whilst they were apart and that the song was on one of them.[24] This song, which was recorded by Roberta Flack for her debut album, First Take, issued by Atlantic records in June 1969, became a No. 1 hit in 1972 and won MacColl a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, while Flack received a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.[25]¹