"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in May 1967. Stevens' own version originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967.
The song has been widely covered and has become a hit single for four different artists: P. P. Arnold (1967), Keith Hampshire (1973), Rod Stewart (1977) and Sheryl Crow (2003).
Stewart recorded the song at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, United States, and it appeared on his 1976 album A Night on the Town. It was released as a double A-side single with "I Don't Want to Talk About It". It was a huge success, and spent four weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in May 1977,[7] number 11 in April in Canada, and also reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. In a departure from the original, Stewart excludes the concluding "But when it comes to being loved, she's first" from the refrain. In 1993, he recorded a live version during a session of MTV Unplugged. This was included on the album Unplugged...and Seated.
