After a track from First Take, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", was included by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me, and the song became a number-one hit in the United States, causing the album to reach number one on the Billboard albums chart and Billboard R&B album chart; furthermore, the single topped the chart for the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972, possibly the only sleeper hit to accomplish this.

"[2] Julius Lester, writing for Rolling Stone, found that First Take was "one of those rare albums that has the power to enlighten the emotional content of one's life.

"[5] Pitchfork's Elizabeth Nelson wrote: "Recorded over a period of just 10 hours, the future star’s breakthrough 1969 debut captured her idiosyncratic mix of soul, jazz, and folk and her singular vision as a bandleader [...] Recorded in the violent blinding flash of a moment when absolutely nothing seemed certain.

"[3] In 2019, Flack's website announced that First Take would be remastered and re-released as a limited deluxe edition of only 3,000 copies commemorating the album's fiftieth anniversary.

[6] The set includes one vinyl LP and two compact discs: one CD is the remastered album and the other contains "rare and unreleased recordings".