Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood brought their unique vocal talents together for this orchestral dream pop fantasy. Hazlewood had taken her under his wing to create the sensational 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin'' after meeting with her at her father's mansion.
Hazlewood recalled: "We didn't even talk about working together. After about forty minutes, in comes Frank. He introduced himself. An hour later, he came over and said, 'Lee, I'm glad to hear that you guys are going to be working together,' and left...She'd been singing up here like this [high pitched squeal] but I wanted her down here where I could hear her right. We lowered her singing about two keys. I made her sound like a tough little broad. I wanted her to sing like a 16-year-old girl who screwed truck drivers. She said, 'I can do that.'"
Sinatra says they helped each other: "He defined the singer I am. He said, 'Don't sing like that any more!' I was singing about six notes higher than I had to, in a range that kept me up in a bubblegum sound. And he said, 'Nancy, that's over. You need to bite the words.'...The black girls had been doing it for years, using a more masculine side, having the testosterone kick in, but the white girls hadn't caught on before me...I used to be called Nancy Nice Lady. Lee said 'get rid of that' so I became Nasty Jones, which is the nickname that he gave me...That's a very interesting place to be. Lee's songs had been recorded by Lee and someone else but they weren't hits. I told him that a couple of years ago. I said, `Just face it, buddy, you didn't have any hits before me and you didn't have any hits after me so I must have brought something to the mix.'"
'Nancy & Lee' went gold in the US, peaking at number thirteen on the album chart. They released a second album ('Nancy & Lee - Did You Ever?') in 1971 in the UK, that was released the next year in the US as 'Nancy & Lee Again'.
http://www.nancysinatra.com/
"Jackson"
"Summer Wine"
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin"'
"Elusive Dreams"
"Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman"
"Storybook Children"
"Sundown, Sundown"
"Some Velvet Morning"
"Sand"
"Lady Bird"
"I've Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up To Me)"
'Nancy & Lee'
full album:
All tracks composed by Lee Hazlewood; except where indicated
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (Phil Spector, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) - 3:23
"Elusive Dreams" (Billy Sherrill, Curly Putman) - 3:12
"Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman" (Tom T. Hall) - 2:35
"Summer Wine" - 3:39
"Storybook Children" (Billy Vera, Chip Taylor) - 3:10
"Sundown, Sundown" - 2:35
"Jackson" (Billy Edd Wheeler, Jerry Leiber [as Gaby Rodgers]) - 2:46
"Some Velvet Morning" - 3:45
"Sand" - 3:41
"Lady Bird" - 3:00
"I've Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up To Me)" - 2:49
Hip, man! Very, very hip! Coolsville.
ReplyDelete