Sixty years after the release of her debut album, Boots, we celebrate her finest tracks – from Bond themes to LSD anthems
Before she sang a Bond theme, Nancy Sinatra had recorded a parody of one: twanging guitar, John-Barry-mocking brass and all. The great lyrics – “He’s never caught a spy I’m told / He’s never even caught a cold” – mean preposterous mid-60s novelty records come no better.
Sinatra’s eponymous 2004 album gained attention for the involvement of Morrissey, but his Let Me Kiss You sounds jarringly weird sung by her. A version of Jarvis Cocker’s Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time suits Sinatra better, the sassy voice of These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ grown older and wiser, dispensing kick-him-out relationship advice.
When it comes to Sinatra’s duets with Dad, Somethin’ Stupid gets all the plaudits, but this bizarre slice of swinging cod-hippy whimsy – presumably intended to suggest Frank Sinatra had a passing knowledge of the counterculture – is far more intriguing, not least for the sound of him singing: “Hello, birdies! Hello, spring!”
There are, essentially, two kinds of duet between Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood: the weirdly erotic ones; and the ones where Hazlewood plays a loser and Sinatra his long-suffering partner. Been Down So Long is a great spin on the second variety. Sinatra enumerates Hazlewood’s woes; he agrees; then she reveals herself as their source, offering fabulously sarky consolation: “Poor Lee.”
