NANCY SINATRA. BOOTS, CONSIDERED (1966): Daddy's little girl all grown up

 |   |  2 min read

NANCY SINATRA. BOOTS, CONSIDERED (1966): Daddy's little girl all grown up

There were three different instructions producer Lee Hazlewood gave to Nancy Sinatra when she went to sing his freshly written song These Boots Are Made For Walking.

Each was as good as the others.

First he told her to sing it “like a 14-year old girl in love with a 40-year old man”.

Sinatra didn't quite know what that meant so after the first take he suggested she sing it like a married woman, not a virgin anymore.

Then, according to some sources as mentioned in James Kaplan's biography of her father Frank Sinatra, The Chairman, he ordered the 25-year old Nancy to sing it “like a 16-year old girl who fucks truck drivers”.

She did and three weeks later her signature song and first hit was number one on the US charts. Subsequently it would pick up two Grammy nominations for her and one for arranger Billy Strange.

She was also given a sexy makeover with piled-up bouffant hair, miniskirts and high boots. (The template for Austin Powers' fembots?)

Inevitably there was the tie-in album, her debut Boots where Hazlewood – who was by that time a well-known and successful writer/producer and arranger – called on the Wrecking Crew.

NancySinatraBoots2021Pulled from the shelves at random for this on-going column, Boots stands up well.

Given that few women singers wrote their own material – Jackie de Shannon being a notable exception, Carole King's solo career still some years away – Sinatra was obliged to cover other artists' material, as chosen by the astute Hazlewood who emphasised a kind of tougher edge.

With gender flips, Lennon's Run For Your Life (from the recently released Rubber Soul) and Daytripper – both with horns – push the idea of a self-assured young woman, Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe also suits the persona she was putting forward.

The Stones' As Tears Go By – given a gentle bossa shuffle – comes off as by a more mature woman than Marianne Faithfull's chaste, Elizabethan. It's not the finest thing here however.

But the dramatic In My Room (not the Beach Boys' song but the Italian song covered by the Walker Brothers the same year) has a Gothic gloom and If He'd Loved Me show another side of Sinatra: the woman hurt by love lost.

Hazlewood's originals I Move Around and So Long Babe (the latter a kind of inversion of It Ain't Me Babe with a veneer of desperation for fame on the part of the man leaving) reenforce her independence, despite the hurts.

aa480fa6bc4caf8655eb8039cdce7cf5__nancy_sinatra__sAnd although Lies (the Knickerbockers hit) and Flowers on the Wall (Statler Brothers) are make-weights they follow the coherent themes Hazlewood – who liked the idea of concept albums – brought together.

As a debut album for a woman coming out of the shadow of a famous father, Boots is a very sound announcement of a career which – with Hazlewood – would go on to greater and often darker things in their classic duets like Down From Dover, Some Velvet Morning and Summer Wine.

When lined up against album by her peers Dusty, Cilla, Lulu, Marianne and others at the time, Boots has a snap and assertion the others often lacked, although some of those artists had more range and expressive power.

However with Lee Hazlewood at the controls, Nancy Sinatra delivered a very convincing debut album and parlayed it into a career in music, television and a slightly more interesting film career (The Wild Angels biker flick by Roger Corman, with Peter Fonda) than the teenage beach party films she'd been known for.

Although Speedway with Elvis the year after Boots remains a footnote in both their careers.

.

You can hear this album (with two bonus tracks) at Spotify here

Elsewhere has a considerable amount about Lee Hazlewood's long career here

.

Elsewhere occasionally revisits albums -- classics sometimes, but more often oddities or overlooked albums by major artists -- and you can find a number of them starting here

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   The Album Considered articles index

ERROL SCORCHER AND THE REVOLUTIONARIES: RASTAFIRE, CONSIDERED (1978): A long life after his death

ERROL SCORCHER AND THE REVOLUTIONARIES: RASTAFIRE, CONSIDERED (1978): A long life after his death

Jamaican DJ Errol Scorcher (born Errol Archer in the parish of St Catherine in 1956) wasn't much known outside of the hardcore reggae audience in the world beyond his homeland. However back in... > Read more

VARIOUS ARTISTS. ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, CONSIDERED (early 1970s?): Travels in the time tunnel

VARIOUS ARTISTS. ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, CONSIDERED (early 1970s?): Travels in the time tunnel

Among the many good things about what Bob Seger called “old time rock and roll” is that you get more of it for less. Like on this album which boasts “24 terrific rock'n'roll... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bayou Country (1969)

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bayou Country (1969)

Consider the landscape of rock in 1969, the year of Woodstock and flower power. The big names were Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead; Led Zeppelin had arrived with two thumping albums; there... > Read more

Las Kellies: Suck This Tangerine (Fire/digital outlets)

Las Kellies: Suck This Tangerine (Fire/digital outlets)

Elsewhere takes its self-imposed mandate to guide you elsewhere quite seriously, so here we introduce this Argentinean duo of Cecelia Kelly (guitars, bass, vocals) and Silvina Costa (drums,... > Read more