Former member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, soul artist P.P. Arnold (Patricia Cole) released "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Stevens) in the spring of 1967. She reached the U.K. top twenty.

The composer, Cat Stevens (Steven Georgiou and now Yusuf Islam) version came out late that year on his vinyl album "New Masters" side two, track one.

Once a member of the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, Rod Stewart had a monster top twenty hit with the song from the 1976 album "A Night On the Town".

Featured on the 2003 album "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow", the Grammy award winning singer's single easily got into the Billboard top fifteen.