When Clint Eastwood first heard “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” he found himself “driving off the side of the freeway,” according to Roberta Flack. Enamored with the song, the director used it in a pivotal moment in his film “Play Misty for Me,” and it subsequently gained new fame.
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TRANSCRIPT
(gentle music) - She recorded 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.'
It had been out almost three years and Clint Eastwood said, 'I'm gonna put it in this movie'. (gentle music) - The song was out there.
It'd been out there and every now and then, you'd hear it on the radio but it did not have the wide acceptance until people could associate something visual with it.
- [Trailer Voiceover] For Clint Eastwood, an invitation to terror.
(woman screaming) - [Caller] Play 'Misty' for me.
- [Clint] I wanted to do a nice idyllic scene where he was sort of reconciling with the girlfriend, Donna Mills' character.
I heard the Roberta Flack song on the radio coming to work one day and I said, 'Oh yeah, this tells the story.'
- [Joel] And I get a phone call one morning.
Clint Eastwood's on the phone.
He said, 'I just finished directing my first film, it's called 'Play Misty For Me.'' And he said, 'I want to use that song in the montage that the whole movie builds to.'
So I said, 'Knock yourself out, Jack.'
He said, 'But I only have a thousand dollars.'
I said 'You can have it for a thousand cents, gonna be in a movie.'
- [Roberta] He called me in Virginia, that was a big thrill for my mom.
And we talked and he said he wanted to use it and I said, no.
By this time I had become a little bit commercially concerned about what people were gonna hear, and I said 'It's too long.
I'd like to, you know, to do it again.'
He said, 'No, I'd like to use it.'
So I said, 'Well take the first eight or 16 bars out.
You don't need that piano intro.'
He said, 'I want every note, every breath.'
(gentle music) The story is that he was driving down the Los Angeles freeway and heard the song.
♪ The first time ever I saw your face ♪ - He said the song just totally hypnotized him and he found himself driving off the side of the freeway.
♪ Thought the sun rose in your eyes ♪