The change of locale for Nancy Sinatra's third album didn't change her approach much: it's dominated by humdrum covers of contemporary pop and rock hits and pop standards, with some Lee Hazlewood country songs thrown in, though his compositions "Friday Child" and "Summer Wine" (the second of which is a Sinatra/Hazlewood duet) are strong, moody highlights.
Nancy Sinatra’s critical reputation has suffered from a strong streak of rock snobbery. The first two editions of Rolling Stone Album Guide simply skipped her. The third gave her albums a dismissive two stars, then the fourth skipped her again. In The Heart & Soul of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles, Dave Marsh included Lee Hazlewood’s production of Rebel Rouser, then dissed his “silly duet” with Nancy on These Boots Are Made For Walking. OK, Dave, but a “duet” is a song with two singers. Lee does not sing on it. Maybe you should actually listen to it. In Rat Pack Confidential, Shawn Levy was gratuitously nasty mentioning ‘terrible songs,’ but was more interested in her shorts, boots and go-go dancers.
Basically, she suffered because she was popular music aristocracy right from the start, and her elaborate musical arrangements indicated a silver spoon beginning.
Nancy In London
While Hazlewood produced the album, Billy Strange arranged it at Pye Studios at Marble Arch in London. Due to British Musician’s Union rules, Strange wasn’t allowed to conduct, so Johnny Harris took over. Eddie Brackett was their long-time engineer.
Recording in Britain had become a well-trodden route in the wake of The Beatles, led by The Everly Brothers Two Yanks in England. Brenda Lee did an album in 1964. Del Shannon did Home And Away with Andrew Loog Oldham in 1967 although it wasn’t released for decades. Tommy Roe recorded in the UK. Bobby Vee recorded The New Sound From England but did it with Snuff Garrett in America. Usually the point was using British producers and session men, and most often going for British songwriters – both Brenda Lee and Bobby Vee had a go at She Loves You. But Nancy was in London with Lee Hazlewood and Billy Strange and some of the songs such as Hutchinson Jail were country. There are no British songwriters on there either, though when it was issued on CD in 1996 John Barry’s "You Only Live Twice" was a bonus cut. You have to wonder what the point of doing it in London was.
Both the Sinatra theme song, and full soundtrack album, scored well on the music charts of that day. The soundtrack for “You Only Live Twice” rose to No. 27 on the Billboard 200 album chart in 1967.
NANCY: "Recording 'You Only Live Twice' was a scary experience. There were about 80 symphony musicians and John Barycusse (composer/conductor) and Leslie Bricusse, one of the world's finest lyricists and Chubby Broccoli and his wife and all of the big execs from the Bond movies sitting in the booth. I was just terrified. You could've peeled me up off the floor, I was just a mess. John Barry came out to me after I sort of squeaked through a couple of takes and he said "would you rather I track the band and you come back and do the vocal?" And I said "Oh John, please! Yes!"
I remember saying to him during one of the takes when I was trying so hard to overcome my nerves, "Are you sure you don't want to call Shirley Bassey? I think she's in the parking lot." I went in and did the vocal the following day. Now, when I listen to it I amaze myself, actually, that I got through it. I could sing it a lot better now."
While Hazlewood produced the album, Billy Strange arranged it at Pye Studios at Marble Arch in London. Due to British Musician’s Union rules, Strange wasn’t allowed to conduct, so Johnny Harris took over. Eddie Brackett was their long-time engineer.
So why were they in London? They were there to record the James Bond theme You Only Live Twice with John Barry conducting the 80 piece London Philharmonic. That carried over to the album where she describes her youthful Wrecking Crew American backing musicians, and contrasts them:
NANCY: "Recording in London was definitely a different experience than recording in America. First of all, because the guys in America were my age and younger. On BOOTS you know, we had Jimmy Gordon on the drums, he was like a baby; and Chuck Berghofer on bass. Donnie Owens and Al Casey on acoustic guitars, and we had kind of a young trombone section, you know. It was just a youthful kind of a look. When you walked into the studio in London there were guys with grey beards and white hair and it was a little scary, a little intimidating to be recording in London with these wonderful, experienced London Philharmonic-type musicians. And me with my little bitty voice".
NANCY: "Recording in London was definitely a different experience than recording in America. First of all, because the guys in America were my age and younger. On BOOTS you know, we had Jimmy Gordon on the drums, he was like a baby; and Chuck Berghofer on bass. Donnie Owens and Al Casey on acoustic guitars, and we had kind of a young trombone section, you know. It was just a youthful kind of a look. When you walked into the studio in London there were guys with grey beards and white hair and it was a little scary, a little intimidating to be recording in London with these wonderful, experienced London Philharmonic-type musicians. And me with my little bitty voice".
Recording in Britain had become a well-trodden route in the wake of The Beatles, led by The Everly Brothers Two Yanks in England. Brenda Lee did an album in 1964. Del Shannon did Home And Away with Andrew Loog Oldham in 1967 although it wasn’t released for decades. Tommy Roe recorded in the UK. Bobby Vee recorded The New Sound From England but did it with Snuff Garrett in America. Usually the point was using British producers and session men, and most often going for British songwriters – both Brenda Lee and Bobby Vee had a go at She Loves You. But Nancy was in London with Lee Hazlewood and Billy Strange and some of the songs such as Hutchinson Jail were country. There are no British songwriters on there either, though when it was issued on CD in 1996 John Barry’s "You Only Live Twice" was a bonus cut. You have to wonder what the point of doing it in London was.
For the third time, we have covers … "On Broadway", "Wishin’ and Hopin’ ", and "The More I See You". Lee Hazlewood was possibly restricting the flow of his own compositions (or was diffident) and she had not yet found another songwriter to provide her with new original material. It would be a long time before Mac Davis took on that role.
"On Broadway" was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and in its best and most famous version recorded for The Drifters, adapted and produced by Leiber & Stoller. (US #9, R&B #7) in 1963. In my memory it was a major UK hit and I pride myself on spotting it and Up On The Roof on release, but not so according to the chart books. It’s such a marvelous song, that a cover four years on was a reasonable idea. A powerful vocal and instrumental backing. Who booked her backing singers? A perennial issue. These guys are not up to The Drifters.
"The End" is a cover of the 1958 Earl Grant song, not The Doors psychotic Oedipal drama. That would have been a fascinating combination. Nancy’s version has had a later life in adverts. It’s very late 50s pop, yet has such a huge orchestra and massive chorus over her semi-spoken early verses.
The next song "Step Aside" is country and western. It’s credited to Tommy Jennings, brother of Waylon Jennings. It was recorded by Lee Hazlewood’s first discovery, Sanford Clark in 1966 as the B-side to a re-recording of his first hit, "The Fool" written by Hazlewood. The guitarists on the Sanford Clark session were Al Casey, who played on the original 1956 version, and Waylon Jennings. If this hadn’t been recorded in London, no doubt Al Casey would have played on Nancy’s version too. Waylon went on to record the song himself, in a very Johnny Cash’ stripped down style. I assume Lee sourced the song, and he must have decided to push the song in two directions. Nancy’s version is more elaborate than either Sanford Clark or Waylon Jennings, and while the piano and country bass line sound country, the horns are not a country item.
"I Can’t Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree" is folky. It had been a recent American hit by Just Us, a duo which consisted of Chip Taylor and Al Gorgioni. (US #34, Adult Contemporary #3 in 1966). It gave its title to their album. It’s credited to E. Levitt-C. Monde. Chip Taylor was a major songwriter himself. Good song. As expected, Nancy’s version has the orchestral arrangement, but retains its folky lilting melody.
"On Broadway" was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and in its best and most famous version recorded for The Drifters, adapted and produced by Leiber & Stoller. (US #9, R&B #7) in 1963. In my memory it was a major UK hit and I pride myself on spotting it and Up On The Roof on release, but not so according to the chart books. It’s such a marvelous song, that a cover four years on was a reasonable idea. A powerful vocal and instrumental backing. Who booked her backing singers? A perennial issue. These guys are not up to The Drifters.
The next song "Step Aside" is country and western. It’s credited to Tommy Jennings, brother of Waylon Jennings. It was recorded by Lee Hazlewood’s first discovery, Sanford Clark in 1966 as the B-side to a re-recording of his first hit, "The Fool" written by Hazlewood. The guitarists on the Sanford Clark session were Al Casey, who played on the original 1956 version, and Waylon Jennings. If this hadn’t been recorded in London, no doubt Al Casey would have played on Nancy’s version too. Waylon went on to record the song himself, in a very Johnny Cash’ stripped down style. I assume Lee sourced the song, and he must have decided to push the song in two directions. Nancy’s version is more elaborate than either Sanford Clark or Waylon Jennings, and while the piano and country bass line sound country, the horns are not a country item.
"I Can’t Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree" is folky. It had been a recent American hit by Just Us, a duo which consisted of Chip Taylor and Al Gorgioni. (US #34, Adult Contemporary #3 in 1966). It gave its title to their album. It’s credited to E. Levitt-C. Monde. Chip Taylor was a major songwriter himself. Good song. As expected, Nancy’s version has the orchestral arrangement, but retains its folky lilting melody.
Nancy makes an excellent job of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s "Wishin’ and Hopin’ " and it suits her voice, but my first choice would be Ani di Franco and my second Dusty Springfield for this song. Dionne Warwick had been the first to record it in 1963. Nancy Sinatra has some of the clipped delivery which Ani di Franco used in her later bare, stripped back version for My Best Friend’s Wedding in 1995. This Nancy take on the song is big and dramatic and she goes for rapid after the solo. Dusty Springfield did it in 1964, and scored a US #6 hit, but it was held back in the UK because Dusty was already #3 with "I Just Don’t Know What To With Myself". So The Merseybeats covered her version and went to #13. She remained identified with the song in the UK, performing it on TV with The Merseybeats at the time. A good cover of a well-known song is usually a good idea on an album, but what did they expect to gain from doing it?
The best track of all is Lee Hazewood's "Summer Wine" … the last track on side one … which wasn’t released as a single until it became the B-side of "Sugar Town" (see left).
"This Little Bird" was a John D. Loudermilk song which had been covered in 1965 by The Nashville Teens (UK #38), then by Marianne Faithfull (UK #6 in May, US #32 in July), so there was a British hit connection, and her second Marianne Faithfull cover after "As Tears Go By" on her Boots LP. Nancy’s version was issued as a single in Japan two years later and was a #15 Japanese hit in January 1969.
"Shades" is the second Lee Hazlewood track to appear on the LP, and as soon as you hear the orchestra at the start and then the loping pace and the deep voice, you know it. Fabulous. "Shades" was also recorded by Lee Hazlewood solo (arranged by Billy Strange) in August 1966, and was slated to appear on his aborted 1967 album for MGM, Something Special. It was shifted to his LHI album in 1967, Lee Hazlewood Presents the 98% American Mom & Apple Pie 1929 Crash Band, and every track on that was a solo version of a Nancy Sinatra hit, except for Houston.
"The More I See You" was another major hit to be covered. It was an older song than I thought … 1945. Like many, I met it it with Chris Montez’s 1966 UK #3 hit. Montez had recorded "Call Me" which Nancy had covered on her previous album. It was on the same MoR album "The More I See You". For me, Chris Montez is Let’s Dance and I never liked his shift to this sort of material. Nancy does it with vibes and horns and soars above it. I never liked the song though.
"Hutchinson Jail" is Lee Hazlewood, with the cowboy in the cold, cold, cold jail after being accused of shooting a man. Nancy sings “I got a man in Wichita and a man in Saginaw” and I thought she meant she’d shot some people there too, but then she adds “They both ain’t heard from me in some time.” Then I realised by “got a man” she meant “a male friend or partner.” It was transparent when Lee had sung “I got a wife in Wichita and a girl in Saginaw.” Lee had recorded it in 1966 solo with simpler backing. He’d told her Boots wasn’t a girls song. This definitely isn’t, but then folk tradition is to ignore the gender of a narrator within a song. Bows on the bass. There is a town of Hutchinson in Kansas, not too far from Wichita.
The first single from Nancy in London was Lee Hazlewood’s "Friday’s Child" (US #36 . It had been the title track of Hazlewood’s solo LP for Reprise in 1965, before working with Nancy. It had not set the world on fire. There’s Nancy singing on her own, a 30 piece orchestra, nice crisp chanting chorus. Britain had some good backing vocalists and these sound like rock backing vocalists rather than the Anita Kerr-style choir used on her American recordings. The most memorable thing is the blues lead guitar solo running all over the song. So if it was recorded in London, it’s not Hazlewood’s regular studio team. So who is the lead guitarist? The blues obsession guitar sounds British to me but Billy Strange was there arranging and conducting and is a guitarist with such a wide range that I suspect it’s him. The drums also sound great, just dragging the beat a tad. It doesn’t sound “British session man” to me, but it might be. [extract from Peter Viney's Blog] https://peterviney.com/peter-viney-music-rock-the-band-record-cover/nancy-sinatra/
You Only Live Twice
"This Little Bird" was a John D. Loudermilk song which had been covered in 1965 by The Nashville Teens (UK #38), then by Marianne Faithfull (UK #6 in May, US #32 in July), so there was a British hit connection, and her second Marianne Faithfull cover after "As Tears Go By" on her Boots LP. Nancy’s version was issued as a single in Japan two years later and was a #15 Japanese hit in January 1969.
"Shades" is the second Lee Hazlewood track to appear on the LP, and as soon as you hear the orchestra at the start and then the loping pace and the deep voice, you know it. Fabulous. "Shades" was also recorded by Lee Hazlewood solo (arranged by Billy Strange) in August 1966, and was slated to appear on his aborted 1967 album for MGM, Something Special. It was shifted to his LHI album in 1967, Lee Hazlewood Presents the 98% American Mom & Apple Pie 1929 Crash Band, and every track on that was a solo version of a Nancy Sinatra hit, except for Houston.
"Hutchinson Jail" is Lee Hazlewood, with the cowboy in the cold, cold, cold jail after being accused of shooting a man. Nancy sings “I got a man in Wichita and a man in Saginaw” and I thought she meant she’d shot some people there too, but then she adds “They both ain’t heard from me in some time.” Then I realised by “got a man” she meant “a male friend or partner.” It was transparent when Lee had sung “I got a wife in Wichita and a girl in Saginaw.” Lee had recorded it in 1966 solo with simpler backing. He’d told her Boots wasn’t a girls song. This definitely isn’t, but then folk tradition is to ignore the gender of a narrator within a song. Bows on the bass. There is a town of Hutchinson in Kansas, not too far from Wichita.
You Only Live Twice
For the 1967 Bond film, 'You Only Live Twice', Nancy Sinatra was the first non-British vocalist to sing a theme song for the James Bond film series. The music, as with other scores for Bond films of that era, was composed by John Barry. The song’s lyrics were written by Leslie Bricusse.
NANCY: "Recording 'You Only Live Twice' was a scary experience. There were about 80 symphony musicians and John Barycusse (composer/conductor) and Leslie Bricusse, one of the world's finest lyricists and Chubby Broccoli and his wife and all of the big execs from the Bond movies sitting in the booth. I was just terrified. You could've peeled me up off the floor, I was just a mess. John Barry came out to me after I sort of squeaked through a couple of takes and he said "would you rather I track the band and you come back and do the vocal?" And I said "Oh John, please! Yes!"
I remember saying to him during one of the takes when I was trying so hard to overcome my nerves, "Are you sure you don't want to call Shirley Bassey? I think she's in the parking lot." I went in and did the vocal the following day. Now, when I listen to it I amaze myself, actually, that I got through it. I could sing it a lot better now."
I have included some bonus tracks which were also recorded at the time of this LP release, including her movie single "You Only Live Twice", all of which were included in the CD release.
Tracklist
01 On Broadway 2:43
02 The End 2:22
03 Step Aside 2:33
04 I Can't Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree 2:38
05 Summer Wine 3:40
06 Wishin' And Hopin' 2:49
08 Shades 2:15
09 The More I See You 2:28
10 Hutchinson Jail 2:47
11 Friday's Child 3:00
12 100 Years (Bonus Track) 2:30
13 You Only Live Twice (Bonus Track) 2:55
14 Tony Rome (Bonus Track) 2:23
15 Life is a Trippy Thing (Bonus Track) 2:41
Nancy In London Link (93Mb)
The link is dead or deleted, but thanks!
ReplyDeleteMediafire is writing this: "Life's A Trippy Thing" by Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra may be available for download from Amazon.
Please can you give a repost? Thanks a lot!
Usually, if you keep trying, it gives up and allows you to eventually download. However, I've moved it to a new host to help out
DeleteLooking forward to this, thank you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Nancy was not respected by that first generation of snooty rock critics who were in their mid-20s...guys like Jann Wenner and Dave Marsh hated this stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe kids... we didn't care, we just liked (or disliked) the records. Which is why we were smart enough to buy "Boots" ...what a great record!
Snooty rock critics also hated the Monkees, so the hell with 'em.
Thanks for dropping by Drafter - totally agree with ya mate.
ReplyDelete