Nancy Sinatra is an icon whose tough-talking, effortlessly cool image and idiosyncratic fusion of rock, country, and pop -- as exemplified by her hit single "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and the duets she recorded with Lee Hazlewood, especially "Some Velvet Morning" -- made her a star in the 1960's. She continued working in the decades that followed, reuniting with Hazlewood for 1973's Nancy & Lee Again, pairing successfully with country singer Mel Tillis in the '80s, and in 1995 recorded a comeback album, One More Time, that kicked off a steady stream of releases. This run culminated in 2005's Nancy Sinatra, an album that featured a wide range of alt-rock luminaries like Jarvis Cocker, Morrissey, and half of U2. Her focus then shifted to the management of her father's estate and reissuing her own music with the guidance of Light in the Attic, most notably the 2021 collection Start Walkin' 1965 –1976, which brought her music to a new generation of fans.
Nancy Sandra Sinatra was born in June 1940 while her father, Frank, was singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. As the daughter of show business royalty, she grew up in the spotlight and made her first appearance on television with her father in 1957. It wasn't long before she developed aspirations of her own as a performer -- she had studied music, dancing, and voice for most of her youth -- and in 1960, she made her debut as a professional performer on a television special hosted by her father and featuring guest star Elvis Presley, then fresh out of the Army. After appearing in a number of movies and guest starring on various television episodes, Sinatra was eager to break into music, and she signed a deal with her father's record label, Reprise. However, the second single from her 1966 debut album, Boots, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," made it clear she had the talent to make it without her father's help. Belting out tough-as-nails lyrics over a brassy arrangement by Billy Strange (and with the cream of L.A.'s session players behind her), "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" took the tough posturing of the girl group era to a whole new level on its way to number one in places including the U.S., U.K., Australia, and South Africa. She followed that album with two more in 1966: How Does That Grab You? and Nancy in London, which was recorded in London with top British session players.
A number of hit singles followed, including "How Does That Grab You, Darlin?" "Sugar Town," and the theme song to the James Bond picture You Only Live Twice. Sinatra also teamed up with her father for the single "Somethin' Stupid," which raced to the top of the charts in 1967. She released another two albums that year, Country, My Way and Sugar. Producing most of the sessions and writing many of the songs was Lee Hazlewood, who went on to become a cult hero in his own right and recorded a number of memorable duets with her, including "Sand," "Summer Wine," and the one-of-a-kind epic "Some Velvet Morning." Their collaborations were featured on 1968's Nancy & Lee album, an LP that marked the end of their initial collaboration. She turned to Billy Strange to produce the 1969 album Nancy.
Alongside her musical career, Sinatra also dipped into the world of celluloid, co-starring in a role opposite Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels, the Roger Corman film that helped kick off the biker flicks of the '60s and early '70s. She also teamed up with Elvis Presley in the 1968 movie Speedway.
In 1970, she married dancer Hugh Lambert (a brief marriage to British singer and actor Tommy Sands ended in 1965) and dialed back her involvement with show business in favor of family. However, she did find time to record a reunion album with Hazlewood, 1972's Nancy & Lee Again, as well as a soft pop solo album that same year titled Woman. After a long break from the spotlight, she teamed up with country star Mel Tillis in 1981 for the Elektra album Mel and Nancy, which spawned a pair of minor country hits, and in 1985, she published the book Frank Sinatra: My Father, and became increasingly active in looking after her family's affairs. She published a second book on her father in 1998 and later oversaw the Sinatra Family website. In 1995, she returned to the recording studio with a country-flavored album called One More Time, and she helped publicize it by posing for a photo spread in Playboy magazine. She launched a concert tour in support of the album, and in 2003 teamed up with Hazlewood to record an album, Nancy & Lee 3, which saw a U.S. release in 2004. Nancy soon returned to the recording studio at the urging of longtime fan Morrissey, and in September 2004, she issued a full-length simply titled Nancy Sinatra, an ambitious set which included contributions from members of U2, Pulp, Calexico, Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and other contemporary rock performers. The album's release was followed by more live work, including a memorable appearance at Little Steven's International Underground Garage Rock Festival 2004, at which she performed songs from her new album and "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" backed by an all-star band (including a horn section) and flanked by dozens of frugging go-go dancers.
Over the next two decades, Sinatra would continue to make appearances on-stage and onscreen while turning her attention to archival recording projects. She released Shifting Gears, a collection of 15 unreleased Billy Strange-produced recordings of show tunes, all excavated from her personal vaults, on her Boots Enterprises imprint in 2013. Light in the Attic released the compilation Start Walkin' 1965-1976 in 2021; it was the first in the label's reissue campaign called the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series. Several of her albums were reissued in lush packing with new liner notes and bonus tracks. The campaign dovetailed with the label's reissues of Lee Hazlewood material and in 2023, Nancy & Lee Again received its first reissue since its 1972 release. The reissue train kept rolling along with 2023's Keep Walkin’: Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978 which was made up of songs that the casual fan -- and even some dedicayted ones -- may have never heard, along with a handful of previously unrelased songs. ~ Mark Deming & Tim Sendra
