Thank you for that introduction, and welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback! I'm your host, Jumpin' John, and this episode will discuss the singing career of Frank Sinatra's oldest daughter, Nancy Sinatra.
Nancy Sandra Sinatra was born on June 8th, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey. She is the eldest of the three children born to Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato. After an early childhood spent in New Jersey, by 1950 the family had moved to Toluca Lake, California. In California young Nancy spent many years in piano, dance, and dramatic performance lessons, and undertook months of voice lessons. Ironically, future actress Jill St. John was one of Nancy's elementary school classmates and later dated her father.
Nancy began her career as a singer in November 1957 with an appearance on her father's ABC television variety series The Frank Sinatra Show. In June 1958 she graduated from University High School in Los Angeles, California. In 1961 Nancy was signed to her father's label, Reprise Records. Her first single, "Cuff Links and a Tie Clip", went largely unnoticed. Her subsequent singles, though, charted in Europe and Japan. By 1965, without a hit in the United States, Nancy Sinatra was on the verge of being dropped by the label.
Fortunately, Nancy's father knew songwriter, producer, and arranger Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood had been making records for 10 years, notably with Duane Eddy. Frank Sinatra asked Lee to help boost his daughter's career. Hazlewood's collaborations with Nancy would prove to be enormously successful for them both. Nancy underwent an image overhaul, including bleached-blond hair, frosted lips, heavy eye makeup, and Carnaby Street fashions. Hazlewood also had Sinatra sing in a lower key and crafted songs for her.
Immediately in 1965 they began working on Nancy's debut studio album. That album, called Boots, was arranged and conducted by Billy Strange and produced by Hazlewood. Nancy Sinatra was backed by members of the Los Angeles Wrecking Crew session musicians on the recordings. Hazlewood wrote three songs for the album, and one of them, "So Long, Babe" was released as a single in late 1965, prior to the album's release. "So Long, Babe" only reached #86 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, the second single released from the album material would make Nancy an international star.
Lee Hazlewood had been inspired by a line spoken by Frank Sinatra in the 1963 comedy-western film 4 for Texas. That movie line was [and I quote] "They tell me them boots ain't built for walkin'" [end quote]. Hazlewood intended to record the song himself, but Nancy talked him out of it, saying it was perfect for a girl to sing. Hazlewood agreed, and Nancy Sinatra's recording of the song was made with the help of the Wrecking Crew session musicians. This particular session included Don Randi on piano and Chuck Berghofer on double bass, providing the notable bass line with its quarter-tone descent. The session was held on November 19th, 1965, at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, California.
Here is Nancy Sinatra's version of her #1 international hit from 1966: "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" was released as a single in December 1965, charted on January 22nd, 1966, and became an instant success. In late February 1966, it topped both the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK singles chart, a move it replicated in similar charts across the world. It quickly sold more than one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. Then Nancy Sinatra recorded a promotional film for the song. It was directed by choreographer Robert Sidney and was produced by Official Films at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The Swinging Sixties promotional clip featured Nancy Sinatra in high boots, accompanied by colorfully and provocatively dressed go-go dancers. "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" received three Grammy Award nominations at the 9th Annual Grammy Awards, including two for Sinatra and one for arranger Billy Strange. In 2020, Nancy's 1965 recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Many cover versions of the song have been released in a variety of styles, including metal, pop, rock, punk rock, country, dance, and industrial.
The Boots album was finally released by Reprise Records on March 15th, 1966. Thanks to the popularity of the song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", the LP peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies in November 1966.
Lee Hazlewood would continue to write and produce most of Nancy's hits. He also would sing with her on several duets. All of Nancy Sinatra's 1960's hits would also feature Billy Strange as arranger and conductor. Between early 1966 and early 1968, Sinatra charted on Billboard's Hot 100 with 14 titles, 10 of which reached the Top 40.
In 1966 Nancy's version of "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'" reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Then October 1966 saw the release of the single "Sugar Town". It peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1966, while reaching #1 on the Easy Listening chart in January 1967. "Sugar Town" became Nancy's second million seller and her second gold record. The song was included on Nancy Sinatra's 1966 album, Sugar. In late 1966 Nancy's single "Friday's Child" reached #36 on the Hot 100 chart.
In early 1967 Frank Sinatra had played C. Carson Parks's original recording of the song "Somethin' Stupid" to Lee Hazlewood. Hazelwood reportedly loved the tune and told Frank [and I quote] "If you don't sing it with Nancy, I will" [end quote]. Frank and Nancy's rendition was recorded at United Western Recorders in Hollywood on February 1st, 1967, with backing by session musicians from L.A.'s famed Wrecking Crew. Lee Hazlewood and Jimmy Bowen were listed as the producers of the single, with the arrangement by Billy Strange. The ballad "Somethin' Stupid" was issued in March 1967 by Reprise as a single by Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra. It subsequently appeared on Frank's album The World We Knew and on Nancy's album Sugar. The single reached #1 in the US and the UK singles charts in April 1967. "Somethin' Stupid" spent four weeks at #1 on the US Billboard 100 chart and nine weeks atop the easy listening chart. The song became Frank's second gold single as certified by the RIAA. It was Nancy's third gold single and her third million-selling record. It was the first and only instance of a father-daughter duet hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also nominated for the Record Of The Year at the 10th Grammy Awards.
1967 would continue to be a busy year on the charts for Nancy Sinatra. An early 1967 release of Nancy's single "Love Eyes", also taken from her Sugar album, would peak at #15 in March 1967 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts. "Lightning's Girl" reached #24 in 1967, followed by the single "Tony Rome" (from the movie Tony Rome) which only peaked at #83.
[Play excerpt from Nancy singing the theme from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice]
That was an excerpt from the theme from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. In March 1967 movie producer Cubby Broccoli had finished filming the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. Cubby wanted his friend Frank Sinatra to perform the film's theme song. Frank suggested that they use his daughter instead, as Nancy was still enjoying great popularity in the wake of her single "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". So on May 2nd, 1967 Nancy recorded the theme song, "You Only Live Twice", with a 60-piece orchestra in London, England. According to Nancy, she was incredibly nervous during the recording, and it took around 30 takes to acquire enough material. Two versions were created. Music producer John Barry created the lushly orchestrated track featured during the opening and closing credits of the film. Also Lee Hazlewood produced a more guitar-heavy version. The Hazlewood version appeared on the double A-sided single with "Jackson", and Nancy's guitar-heavy James Bond theme stalled at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Jackson", backed with "You Only Live Twice", was even more successful in the UK, reaching #11 on the singles chart during a 19-week chart run in the UK Top 50.
Nancy's first solo single in 1968 was "100 Years", which peaked in the US at #69. That same year, she recorded "Highway Song" for the European markets. "Highway Song" reached the Top 20 in the UK and other European countries.
Nancy Sinatra enjoyed a parallel recording career, cutting duets with Lee Hazlewood, starting with the song "Summer Wine". Their biggest hit together was a cover of the 1963 country song "Jackson". Their duet version of "Jackson" peaked at #14 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1967. In December 1967, Sinatra and Hazlewood released the single "Some Velvet Morning", which peaked at #26 in the US and at #36 in Canada. The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Great Britain placed "Some Velvet Morning" at #1 in its November 2003 list of the Top 50 Best Duets Ever. The song also appeared on Nancy's 1967 solo album Movin' With Nancy and on Nancy and Lee's 1968 album Nancy & Lee. In 1971, Sinatra and Hazlewood achieved their first collaborative success in the UK singles chart with the #2 hit "Did You Ever?".
Lee Hazlewood proved to be the perfect musical partner for Sinatra. Rolling Stone ranked Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra at #9 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. The website Ultimateclassicrock.com has published their rating of the 25 greatest duos in rock history. On that list Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood come in at #24. Lee Hazlewood later focused on the business side of music and founded his own label, while Sinatra went on to work with other artists. Still, their run together as a duo marked the commercial height of each of their respective careers.
Nancy Sinatra traveled to Vietnam to perform for US troops in 1966 and 1967, and she would record several antiwar songs. For many years after that she would perform for charitable causes supporting Vietnam veterans. Nancy also enjoyed an active career in films and television. Between 1964 and 1968, Sinatra appeared in several feature films, co-starring with Peter Fonda in Roger Corman's 1966 biker-gang movie The Wild Angels and alongside Elvis Presley in the 1968 musical drama Speedway. Frank and Nancy Sinatra played a fictional father and daughter in the 1965 comedy Marriage on the Rocks.
After leaving Reprise in 1970, Nancy Sinatra signed with RCA Records in 1971, resulting in three albums. By 1975, Sinatra was releasing singles on the Private Stock Records label. However, by the mid-1970s, Sinatra had slowed her musical activity and ceased acting to concentrate on her family. She returned to the studio in 1981 to record a country album with Mel Tillis called Mel & Nancy. Two of their songs made the Billboard country chart: #23's "Texas Cowboy Night" and #43's "Play Me or Trade Me".
At age 54, Nancy Sinatra boldly posed for Playboy magazine in the May 1995 issue and made appearances on TV shows to promote her album One More Time. Those Playboy photos, where in the centerfold she was wearing only her famous boots, caused some controversy. Nevertheless, apparently Frank Sinatra was proud of his daughter's photos. In 1995, Nancy wrote the book Frank Sinatra, An American Legend. This was followed by an updated version in 1998 following Frank's death. A Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her in 2002. Nancy Sinatra received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 11th, 2006.
I will close out this podcast episode with Nancy Sinatra's chart-topping 1967 duet with her father Frank, "Somethin' Stupid". So, fellow travelers, may your path be smooth and your music always be rockin"! And until next time, rock on!