Lyrics to
The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face)

This version of The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) was released by The Temptations in 1972.

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The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love,
To the dark and the empty skies.

The first time ever I kissed your mouth
And felt your heart beat close to mine
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command.

The first time ever I lay with you
I felt the earth move in my hand
I thought our joy would fill the earth
And last ’till the end of time, my love,
And last

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The Temptations has released many songs over the years besides The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face). The Temptations released songs from 1964 to 1980 spanning across albums like Meet The Temptations, The Temptations Sing Smokey, The Temptin' Temptations, Gettin' Ready, The Temptations With A Lot O' Soul, The Temptations In A Mellow Mood, The Temptations Wish It Would Rain, Cloud Nine, Puzzle People, The Temptations Christmas Card, Psychedelic Shack, Sky's The Limit, All Directions, Solid Rock, Masterpiece, A Song For You, and Give Love At Christmas. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Temptations.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1972 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) by The Temptations

When you decide to study the lyrics to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face), you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1972 song by The Temptations. Some of the lyrics to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Temptations and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face)" means the words set to the music of The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face), or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Temptations. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) and the lyrics to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Temptations who came here looking just for the lyrics to The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face), but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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