Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born
June 8, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey
) is an American
singer and actress. She
is the daughter of singer/actor
Frank
Sinatra from his first wife, Nancy Barbato, and remains known
for her 1966
signature hit "
These Boots Are Made for
Walkin'" and her cover of
Cher's "
Bang Bang , which was used
as the opening sequence theme in
Quentin Tarantino's
Kill Bill.
For her fourth birthday,
Phil Silvers
and
Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the song
"
Nancy ", which her
father recorded.
Her other popular recordings include "
Sugar
Town", "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" and
the theme from the
James Bond film,
You Only Live Twice.
Nancy Sinatra began her career as a singer and actress in the early
1960s, but initially achieved success only in Europe and Japan.
Then she had a
transatlantic
number-one hit with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", which
showed her provocative but good-natured style, and which
popularized and made her synonymous with
go-go boots. The
promo
clip featured a big-haired Sinatra and six young women in tight
tops, go-go boots and
mini-skirts. The
song was written by
Lee Hazlewood, who
wrote and produced most of her hits and sang with her on several
duets, including "
Some Velvet
Morning". In 1966 and 1967, Sinatra charted with 13 titles, all
of which featured
Billy Strange as
arranger and
conductor.
In 1967 she paired with her father for her second number-one
single, "
Somethin' Stupid". She
also co-starred with
Elvis Presley in
the movie
Speedway.
Recording career
1960s
In the
late 1950s Sinatra began to study music, dancing, and voice at the
University of California in
Los
Angeles
. She dropped out after a year, and made her
professional debut in 1960 on her father's television special with
Elvis Presley, home from the army.
Nancy was sent to the airport on behalf of her father to welcome
Elvis when his plane landed. On the special, Nancy and her father
danced and sang a duet, "You Make Me Feel So Young/Old". That same
year she began a five-year marriage to
Tommy
Sands.
Sinatra was signed to her father's label,
Reprise Records, in 1961. Her first single,
"Cuff Links and a Tie Clip", went unnoticed. However, subsequent
singles charted in Europe and Japan. Without a hit in the U.S. by
1965, she was on the verge of being dropped. Her singing career
received a boost with the help of songwriter/
producer/arranger Lee Hazlewood, who had
been making records for ten years, notably with
Duane Eddy. Hazlewood became Sinatra's
inspiration. He had her sing in a lower key and crafted
pop songs for her.
Bolstered by an image overhaul — including
bleached-blonde hair, frosted lips, heavy eye make-up and Carnaby Street
fashions — Sinatra made her mark on the American
(and British) music scene in early 1966 with "These Boots Are Made
for Walkin'", its title inspired by a line in Robert Aldrich's 1963 western comedy
4 for Texas starring her father
and Dean Martin. One of her many
hits written by Hazlewood, it received three
Grammy nominations, including two for Sinatra and one
for arranger Billy Strange. The song has been covered by artists
such as
Geri Halliwell,
Megadeth,
Jessica
Simpson,
Lil' Kim,
Little Birdy,
Billy
Ray Cyrus,
Faster
Pussycat,
KMFDM,
Operation Ivy and the
Del Rubio Triplets and
The Supremes.
A run of chart singles followed, including the two 1966 Top 10 hits
"How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" (#7) and "
Sugar Town" (#5).
The ballad "Somethin' Stupid" — a duet with father —
hit #1 in the U.S. and the UK
in April 1967 and spent nine weeks at the top of
Billboard's easy listening chart. DJs referred to
the record as "the incest song." Nonetheless, it earned a
Grammy nomination for
Record of the Year and remains the only
father-daughter duet to hit No.1 in the U.S. Other
45 showing her forthright delivery include
"Friday’s Child" (#36, 1966), and the 1967 hits "Love Eyes" (#15)
and "Lightning’s Girl" (#24). She rounded out 1967 with the raunchy
but low-charting "Tony Rome" (#83) — the title track from the
detective film
Tony Rome starring
her father — while her first solo single in
1968 was the more wistful "100 Years" (#69).
Sinatra enjoyed a parallel recording career cutting duets with the
husky-voiced,
country-and-western-inspired Hazlewood,
starting with "
Summer Wine" (originally
the
B-side of "Sugar Town"). Their biggest
hit was a cover of the country song, "
Jackson". The single peaked at #14 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of
1967, when
Johnny Cash and
June Carter Cash also made the song their
own. In December they released the "
MOR"-
psychedelic single "
Some Velvet Morning", regarded as one of
the more unusual singles in pop, and the peak of Sinatra and
Hazlewood’s vocal collaborations. It reached #26 in the USA. The
promo clip is, like the song,
sui generis. The British
broadsheet The
Daily Telegraph placed "Some Velvet Morning" in pole position
in its 2003 list of the Top 50 Best Duets Ever. ("
Somethin' Stupid" ranked number 27)
[3456].
In 1967 she recorded the theme song for the
James Bond film
You Only Live Twice. In the
liner notes of the CD reissue of her 1966 album,
Nancy In London, Sinatra states that
she was "scared to death" of recording the song, and asked the
songwriters: "Are you sure you don't want
Shirley Bassey?" There are two versions of
the Bond theme. The first is the lushly orchestrated track featured
during the opening and closing credits of the film. The second –
and more guitar-heavy — version appeared on the
double A-sided single with "Jackson", though
the Bond theme stalled at #44 on the
Billboard Hot 100.
In 1966
and 1967 Sinatra traveled to Vietnam
to perform
for the troops. Many U.S. soldiers adopted her song
"
These Boots Are Made
for Walkin'" as their anthem, as shown in
Pierre Schoendoerffer's
academy award winning documentary
The Anderson Platoon (1967) and
reprised in a scene in
Stanley
Kubrick's
Full Metal
Jacket (1987). Sinatra recorded several
anti-war songs, including "
My Buddy", featured on her album
Sugar,
"
Home", co-written by
Mac
Davis, and "
It's
Such A Lonely Time of Year", which appeared on the 1968
LP The Sinatra Family
Wish You a Merry Christmas. In 1988 Sinatra recreated her
Vietnam concert appearances on an episode of the television show
China Beach.
Today, Sinatra still
performs for charitable causes supporting U.S. veterans who served
in Vietnam
, including
Rolling Thunder
Inc..
Films and television
Sinatra starred in three teen musicals (otherwise known as
'
beach party' films) -
For Those Who Think
Young (1964);
Get Yourself A College Girl
(1964); and
The
Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), the latter of which
she had a singing role (She was also scheduled to appear in the
role that went to
Linda Evans in
Beach Blanket Bingo,
but was unable). Also in 1966, she starred in
Roger Corman's
The Wild Angels with
Peter Fonda and
Bruce
Dern, and 1968 she shared the screen with
Elvis Presley in
Speedway. She was the only singer to
have a solo song on an Elvis album or soundtrack while he was still
alive. Since his death, several previously unreleased
Ann-Margret solo recordings have appeared on
Elvis albums, but Sinatra was the first.
She also made appearances on
The Ed Sullivan Show,
The Smothers Brothers Comedy
Hour,
The Man from
U.N.C.L.E., and
Rowan & Martin's
Laugh-In and starred in
television specials. These include the
Emmy-nominated 1966 Frank Sinatra special
A Man and His Music - Part
II, and the 1967 Emmy-winning special
Movin' With Nancy, in which she
appeared with Lee Hazlewood, her father and his
Rat Pack pals Dean Martin and
Sammy Davis, Jr., with a cameo appearance
by her brother
Frank Sinatra,
Jr..
1970s and 1980s
Sinatra remained with Reprise until 1970. In 1971, she signed with
RCA, resulting in three albums:
Nancy &
Lee – Again (1971),
Woman (1972), and a
compilation of some of her Reprise recordings under the title
This Is Nancy Sinatra (1973). That year she released a
non-LP single, "Sugar Me" b/w "Ain't No Sunshine". The former was
written by
Lynsey De Paul/
Barry Blue and, with other covers of works by
early-70s popular songwriters, resurfaced on the
1998 album
How Does It Feel.
In the autumn of 1971 Sinatra and Hazlewood’s duet "Did You Ever?"
reached number two in the UK singles chart. In 1972 they performed
for a Swedish documentary,
Nancy & Lee In Las Vegas,
which chronicled their Vegas concerts at the Riviera Hotel and
featured solo numbers and duets from concerts, behind-the-scenes
footage, and scenes of Sinatra's late husband, Hugh Lambert, and
her mother.
[3457]. The film did not appear until 1975.
By 1975 she was releasing singles on Private Stock, which are the
most sought-after by collectors. Among those released were "Kinky
Love", "Annabell of Mobile", "It's for My Dad," and "Indian Summer"
(with Hazlewood). "Kinky Love" was banned by some radio stations in
the 1970s for "suggestive" lyrics. It saw the light of day on CD in
1998 on
Sheet Music: A Collection of Her Favorite Love
Songs. Pale Saints covered the song in 1991.
By the mid-1970s, she slowed her musical activity and ceased acting
to concentrate on being a wife and mother. 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 Singles Chart: "Texas
Cowboy Night" (#23) and "Play Me or Trade Me" (#43).
In 1985 she wrote the book
Frank Sinatra, My Father.
Comeback: 1990s–present
At 54 she posed for
Playboy in the May 1995
issue and made appearances on TV shows to promote her album
One
More Time. The magazine appearance caused some controversy. On
the talk show circuit, she said her father was proud of the photos,
but not everyone was convinced. Those close to the Sinatras claimed
that family members were upset with the nude photo spread. Nancy
told
Jay Leno on a 1995
Tonight Show that her daughters gave their
approval, but her mother said she should ask her father before
committing to the project. Nancy claims that when she told her
father what Playboy would be paying her, he said, "Double
it."
She and
Lee Hazlewood embarked on a U.S. tour playing the House of Blues, the Viper Room
, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go
, the now-defunct Mama Kin
in Boston
, and The
Fillmore
.
That year,
Sundazed Records began
reissuing Sinatra's Reprise albums with remastered sound, new liner
notes and photos, and bonus tracks. She also updated her biography
on her dad and published
Frank Sinatra: An American
Legend.
In 2003 she reunited with Hazlewood once more for the album
Nancy & Lee 3. It was released only in
Australia.
One of her recordings — a cover of
Cher
"
Bang Bang " — was
used to open the 2003
Quentin
Tarantino film
Kill Bill:
Vol. One. In
2005, Sinatra's recording was sampled separately by the
Audio Bullys and
Radio
Slave into dance tracks (renamed into "Shot You Down" and "Bang
Bang" respectively), and by hip-hop artist
Young Buck in a song titled "Bang Bang", as well
as covered for a single and music video by R&B artist Melanie
Durrant. Sinatra recorded the song for her second
Reprise album,
How Does That Grab You? in
1966. She and
Billy Strange worked on
the arrangement, and it was Sinatra's idea to change from a
mid-tempo romp (as sung in
Cher's hit single)
to a ballad. Sinatra's father asked her to sing it on his 1966 TV
special
A Man and His
Music - Part II. The footage of Sinatra's performance on
that special was used in the Audio Bullys' music video of "Shot You
Down."
Taking her father's advice from when she began her recording career
("Own your own masters"), she owns or holds an interest in most of
her material, including videos.
In 2004
she collaborated with former Los Angeles
neighbour Morrissey to
record a version of his song "Let Me
Kiss You", which was featured on her autumn release
Nancy Sinatra.
The single — released the same day as Morrissey’s version — charted
at #46 in the UK, providing Sinatra with her first hit for over 30
years. The follow-up single, "Burnin' Down the Spark", failed to
chart. The album, originally titled
To Nancy, with Love,
featured rock performers such as
Calexico,
Sonic Youth,
U2,
Pulp's
Jarvis
Cocker,
Steven Van Zandt,
Jon Spencer, and
Pete Yorn, who all cited Sinatra as an influence.
Each artist crafted a song for Sinatra to sing on the album.
Two years later
EMI released
The Essential
Nancy Sinatra – a UK-only greatest-hits compilation featuring
the previously unreleased track, "
Machine Gun Kelly." The collection was
picked by Sinatra and spans her 40-year career. The record was
Sinatra's first to make the UK album charts (#73) in 30
years.
Sinatra, a
gay icon, also recorded "Another
Gay Sunshine Day" for
Another Gay
Movie in 2006.
Nancy
received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
on May 11, 2006, which was also declared "Nancy
Sinatra Day" by Hollywood’s mayor, Johnny Grant.
Sinatra appeared, as herself, on one of the final episodes
(
Chasing It) of the HBO mob
drama
The Sopranos. Her
brother, Frank Jr., had previously appeared in the
2000 episode
The Happy
Wanderer.
Nancy Sinatra recorded a public service announcement for Deejay
Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign, encouraging reading of Tarantino
screenplays and related books.
Family
Marriage:
- Tommy Sands, 1960–1965
(divorced)
- Hugh Lambert, 1970–1985 (deceased)
Children (by her second husband):
- Angela Jennifer Lambert (whose godparents are James Darren and his second wife)
- Amanda Lambert.
Discography
Sinatra's Reprise singles — 1961–1965
- "Cuff Links and a Tie Clip"/"Not Just Your Friend" (Issued in
U.S. with picture sleeve)
- "To Know Him Is to Love Him"/"Like I Do"
- "June, July, and August"/"Think of Me"
- "You Can Have Any Boy"/"Tonight You Belong to Me"
- "I See the Moon"/"Put Your Head
on My Shoulder"
- "The Cruel War"/"One Way" (Note: "One Way" is the only song
ever committed to vinyl that Sinatra wrote and performed)
- "Thanks to You"/"Tammy"
- "Where Do the Lonely Go?"/"Just Think About the Good
Times"
- "This Love of Mine"/"There Goes the Bride"
- "True Love"/"The Answer to
Everything"
Sinatra's Reprise singles — 1965–1970
21 singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Their chart position
and year are noted. All chart positions are from the Hot 100 unless
otherwise indicated.
- "So Long, Babe" (1965 - #86) /"If He'd Love Me"
- "These Boots Are
Made for Walkin'" (1966 - #1) /"The City Never Sleeps At
Night"
- "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" (1966 - #7) /"The Last of
the Secret Agents"
- "Friday's Child" (1966 - #36) /"Hutchinson Jail"
- "In Our Time" (1966 - #46) /"Leave My Dog Alone"
- "Sugar Town" (1966 - #5, pop; #1,
adult contemporary) /"Summer Wine" with
Lee Hazlewood (1967 - #49)
- "Love Eyes" (1967 - #15, pop; #30, adult contemporary)
/"Coastin'"
- "Somethin' Stupid" with
Frank Sinatra (1967 - #1 pop and adult
contemporary) /(b-side by Frank
Sinatra on U.S. single, b-side on the UK. single was "Call Me"
by Nancy)
- "You Only Live Twice"
(1967 - #44, pop; #3, adult contemporary; re-recorded version of
the James Bond film theme)
- "Jackson" with Lee Hazlewood (1967 - #14, pop; #39, adult
contemporary)
- "Lightning's Girl" (1967 - #24) /"Until It's Time for You to Go"
(Issued in U.S. with picture sleeve)
- "Lady Bird" with Lee Hazlewood
(1967 - #20) /"Sand" with Lee
Hazlewood
- "Tony Rome" (1967 - #83) /"This Town"
- "Some Velvet Morning" with
Lee Hazlewood (1968 - #26) /"Oh,
Lonesome Me" with Lee Hazlewood
- "100 Years" (1968 - #69, pop; #29, adult contemporary) /"See
the Little Children"
- "Happy" (1968 - #74, pop; #18, adult contemporary) /"Nice 'N'
Easy"
- "Good Time Girl" (1968 - #65) /"Old Devil Moon"
- "Whatever Happened to Christmas?"/"I Wouldn't Trade Christmas"
(both songs sung by the Sinatra family)
- "God Knows I Love You" (1968 - #97, pop; #40, adult
contemporary) /"Just Bein' Plain Old Me"
- "Here We Go Again" (1969 - #98, pop; #19, adult contemporary)
/"Memories"
- "Drummer Man" (1969 - #98) /"Home"
- "It's Such a Lonely Time of Year"/"Kids"
- "I Love Them All (The Boys In the Band)"/"Home"
- "Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham"/"White Tattoo"
- "How Are Things In California" (1970 - #17, Billboard Adult
Contemporary Chart) /"I'm Not a Girl Anymore"
- "Feelin' Kinda Sunday" with Frank
Sinatra (1970 - #30, Billboard Adult Contemporary
Chart)/"Kids"
- "Hook & Ladder"/"Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?" (Issued
in U.S. with picture sleeve)
- "Life's a Trippy Thing" with Frank
Sinatra/b-side by Frank
Sinatra
- "Did You Ever?" with Lee
Hazlewood/"Back On the Road" with Lee
Hazlewood
- "Glory Road"/"Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?" (b-side was
"Flowers In the Rain" in the UK)
RCA-Victor singles
- "Kind of a Woman"/"It's the Love (That Keeps It All Together)"
(1972)
- "Big Red Balloon" with Lee
Hazlewood/"Down From Dover" with Lee
Hazlewood (UK-only single, 1972)
- "Sugar Me"/"Ain't No Sunshine" (1973)
Private Stock singles
- "Annabell of Mobile"/"She Played the Piano and He Beat the
Drums" (1975)
- "Kinky Love"/"She Played the Piano and He Beat the Drums"
(1976)
- "Indian Summer" with Lee
Hazlewood/"Dolly and Hawkeye" (1976)
- "A Gentle Man Like You"/"It's For My Dad" (1977)
Elektra singles
Other singles
- Lil' Bit Of Gold (1988 - Rhino Records;
NOTE: Four-song EP)
- "Bone Dry/Now I Have Everything" (1995 - Cougar Records)
- For My Dad (1998, DCC
Compact Classics; NOTE: Three-song EP. One Nancy
solo, two Frank/Nancy duets)
- "Let Me Kiss You"/"Bossman" (2004 - Attack
Records/Sanctuary)
- "Burnin' Down the Spark"/"Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad"
(2004 - Attack Records/Sanctuary)
- "Shot You Down" (2005) Audio Bullys feat. Nancy Sinatra
- "Glory Road/Dolly and Hawkeye (Digital 45)" (2009 - Boots
Enterprises; NOTE: Digital-only single of
remastered songs originally from early 1970s)
Notes
10 of her songs cracked the UK Singles Chart:
- "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (1966 - #1)
- "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" (1966 - #19)
- "Sugar Town" (1967 - #8)
- "Somethin' Stupid" with Frank Sinatra (1967 - #1)
- "You Only Live Twice"/"Jackson" (b-side with Lee Hazlewood)
(1967 - #11)
- "Lady Bird" with Lee Hazlewood
(1967 - #47)
- "Highway Song" (1969 - #21)
- "Did You Ever?" with Lee Hazlewood (1971 - #2)
- "Let Me Kiss You" (2004 - #46)
- "Shot You Down" Audio Bullys featuring Nancy Sinatra (2005 -
#3, pop; #1, dance)
U.S. albums
- Boots (1966,
Reprise)
- How Does That Grab
You? (1966, Reprise)
- Nancy in London (1966,
Reprise)
- Sugar
(1966, Reprise)
- Country, My Way (1967,
Reprise)
- Nancy & Lee (1968,
Reprise)
- Speedway
(1968, RCA; NOTE: Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack to the film starring Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Sinatra solo "Your Groovy Self"
is featured on the album)
- Movin' With
Nancy (1968, Reprise)
- The Sinatra Family
Wish You a Merry Christmas (1968, Reprise)
- Nancy
(1969, Reprise)
- Nancy's
Greatest Hits (1970, Reprise)
- Nancy and Lee -
Again (1971, RCA)
- Woman
(1972, RCA)
- This Is Nancy
Sinatra (1973, RCA)
- Mel & Nancy (1981,
Elektra)
- Boots:
Nancy Sinatra's All-Time Hits (1986, Rhino)
- The Hit Years (1986,
Rhino)
- Fairytales
& Fantasies: The Best of Nancy & Lee (1989,
Rhino)
- One More Time
(1995, Cougar)
- Sheet
Music: A Collection of Her Favorite Love Songs (1998, DCC
Compact Classics)
- How Does It Feel?
(1998, DCC Compact Classics)
- You Go-Go Girl! (1999,
Varese Sarabande)
- California Girl
(2002, Buena Vista Records)
- Nancy Sinatra
(2004, Attack)
- Bubblegum Girl,
Vol. 1
(2005, Boots Enterprises)
- Bubblegum Girl,
Vol. 2
(2005, Boots Enterprises)
- Kid Stuff (2008, Boots Enterprises)
- Cherry Smiles:
The Rare Singles (2009, Boots Enterprises)
Notable foreign albums
Filmography
External links