Nancy Sinatra
Here at Retrosonic blog I will usually be spotlighting musicians and singers that are more obscure or behind the scenes figures, but this month we are featuring one of the most iconic female artists of all time- the incomparable Miss Nancy Sinatra. Although her heyday was definitely the 60’s and early 70’s, her influence on female artists from that time until the present day is so pervasive that you’ve got to give her credit for being relevant now. Plus, she is still active and has seen a huge resurgence in the last ten years or so.
Before her first big successes in music, Nancy starred in two hugely popular movies, “Wild Angels” with Peter Fonda and “Speedway” featuring Elvis Presley. She admits herself that she “couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag” but she became a top box office attraction nevertheless. Soon after that she met producer/songwriter Lee Hazelwood, who would soon become the major architect of her musical success. In the first batch of song demos he gave her, she found “These Boots Are Made for Walking”,
and she knew immediately it was a surefire hit. In those days most songs for female vocalists were about finding the perfect guy or waiting patiently for his call, but “Boots” was a rebel chick’s roar of power and independence. Singers such as Debbie Harry, Madonna, and many others have referenced that blueprint ever since. Many years before the popularity of music videos, Nancy pioneered the use of promo films of her songs and skillfully used them to cement her image in the mind of the public. Here’s one for “Boots”: Boots.
Although the song’s beat was rock, Hazelwood and Nancy brought a little country twang and swing to the track. They kept this going for the followup, “How Does That Grab Ya’ Darlin’ “, also a big hit (although not as big as “Boots”). In fact, the case could be made that Lee and Nancy were actually the first to really hit on “Country Rock”. Here is the video for “Grab Ya’” from a French TV show: Grab Ya'.
Of course, you cannot talk about Nancy Sinatra without mentioning her looks and tremendous sex appeal. The hottest American chicks of the sixties were Nancy Sinatra and Jane Fonda, coincidentally both daughters of two of America’s most well known male entertainers of the generation before them. Nancy was a favorite pin-up girl of the soldiers in Vietnam and often performed for them as part of the USO. Hollywood movie executives understood this extreme sex appeal and used it tosell the spy spoof film “The Last of the Secret Agents”, starring Nancy and comedic team Allen and Rossi. At right is a very famous still of one of her costumes for a scene in which her dress got caught on a drawer and broke away to reveal the Victoria’s Secret style outfit in the photo.
The film was pretty funny and Nancy herself has said that it is her favorite among the films she made. Her rendition of the title song is also a spy music staple: Secret Agent. Nancy’s website also contains a clip of the “breakaway dress” scene: Nancy's Blog (you’ll have to scroll down a bit to get to it).
Ms. Sinatra was not just eye candy, however, but a very accomplished vocalist who took great care with her recordings. She possesses a rare quality that she shares with her father Frank: the ability to create an immediate intimacy with the listener with a tone that is uniquely conversational. She always sings to you, not at you, as so many contemporary vocalists do. A great example of this is her version of the Sonny Bono composed song “Bang Bang”. With only her voice and the tremolo guitar of her arranger Billy Strange (a member of the legendary Wrecking Crew), she creates a womb-like world where it seems as if she is whispering in your ear: Bang.
Sometime in the late 60’s producer Lee Hazelwood apparently began experimenting with LSD, as we all know many other musicians of the time did. This led to the creation of several hits of what I would call “psychedelic pop”. Some, like “Summer Wine”: Wine or “Sugar Town”: Sugar kept the drug references hidden behind clever wordplay, understood only by those in the know and perfectly enjoyable as pop confections by the rest of the public. The iconic “Some Velvet Morning”, however, made it immediately obvious that something quite “freaky” was going on:
Velvet Morning. Hazelwood's opening lyric (“Some velvet morning when I’m straight”) let you know that he wasn’t at that moment “straight” and Nancy’s recurring refrain about flowers, dragonflies, and daffodils beams in from another world throughout the track. Who, after all, is “Phaedra”? Does it refer to Nancy, acid, or something else altogether?
In the 1980’s, Nancy left the music world to focus on raising her two daughters following the death of her second husband, Hugh Lambert. In the 90’s she reappeared, and in 1995 at 55 years of age, she posed semi-nude in Playboy magazine. She now refers to it as a “cheap publicity stunt”, but she looked great and scored another victory for powerful, independent women, regardless of their age.
In 2004 Quentin Tarantino released “Kill Bill Vol. 1” and opened the film with Nancy’s version of “Bang
Bang”, which combined with the fascination for all things 60’s oriented led to a resurgence of popularity for Nancy. She continued to perform and released an album of collaborations with artists such as U2 and Morissey. To this day she hosts a show on Sirius radio focusing on her father’s music and legacy. Here’s a link to a video of their classic duet “Something Stupid”: Stupid.
For more complete biographical information about Nancy Sinatra refer to this link on her website: Bio and also this television interview from 2006: Interview 2006.
