Peggy Seeger

The song was written for her by her lover Ewan MacColl in early 1957. He sang it down a crackling transatlantic phone line to Peggy who had returned to the USA, unwilling to continue an affair with a married man. That was the only time he ever sang the song which went on to become one of the greatest love songs of all time. “It was a hell of a way to woo me back!” says Peggy. With a simple and moving piano accompaniment, Peggy’s new interpretation reflects on the memory of overwhelming love, now tempered with a deep mature knowledge of its fragility and fleetingness. The final verse is telling; often recorded by others as “I knew our joy would fill the earth”, Peggy sings the original and far more poignant “I thought our joy would fill the earth and last til the end of time”. Peggy says, “I’ve had two life partners, one male and one female, and I have three children and 9 grandchildren. I’ve come to realise that the lyrics can be interpreted in so many ways. Ewan wrote the tune to mimic the heartbeat of someone wildly in love and I used to feel like a soaring bird when I sang this song. Now I’m grounded within it and that makes me happy.” The 2023 recording is a family affair with Peggy & Ewan’s sons Neill & Calum MacColl, and the official video by their daughter Kitty MacColl. It’s released for the 67th anniversary of verse 2 (The first time ever I kissed your mouth…..) There are over 1000 cover versions on Spotify alongside Roberta Flack’s iconic recording. Artists including Elvis, Johnny Cash, Shirley Bassey, Johnny Mathis, Celine Dion, George Michael, Janet Kay, Miley Cyrus, Paul Potts & James Blake have all stamped their personal marks. In 2022 The Killers performed it live on a world tour. Peggy says, “I love hearing all the different ways that singers make the song their own. It’s testament to the universal story and the brilliant storytelling - it’s deceptively simple yet so powerful.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.