NANCY SINATRA REVIEWS:
Boots (1966)
How Does That Grab You? (1966)
Nancy in London (1966)
Sugar (1966)
Country, My Way (1967)
Nancy & Lee (1968)
Movin' With Nancy (1968)
Boots (1966)
Album Score: 8
I have a credible theory about Nancy Sinatra. She was invented by Frank Sinatra to destroy rock 'n' roll at its very foundation. She makes weaker cover versions of three of the most popular and widely influential figures of the era. She covers the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and the Beatles twice. These songs, all of which are timeless in their original forms, are put to some of the most dated instrumentation possible. Can you imagine "It Ain't Me Babe" as a go-go girl dance song? ... Yup, that's here. Fortunately for all of us, Frank Sinatra's masterplan failed, and rock 'n' roll lasted longer than he did.
It almost seems like discussing anything other than "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" is irrelevant. Apart from singing a James Bond song, nothing Nancy Sinatra ever did compares with the popularity of that one. She's been pretty dang active throughout the late '60s, too, releasing eight solo albums through 1966-1969. Most of the original songs in this album were written by Lee Hazlewood, who The All Music Guide calls a genius. But for a genius, he sure seems to write a lot of trite melodies. Some of his songs have a nice attitude and atmosphere, but if that's all you got, then ... well ... He's no Paul McCartney .......... or even a Neil Young!
One major surprise was called "In My Room." That's a fun, overly dramatic song if there ever was one. It strikes a fond resemblance to Scott Walker (except much weaker). I'm not sure who wrote the song ... the All Music Guide credits it to two composers named Pockriss and Vance. Anyway, kudos for them.
All in all, much of this material is quite weak. Sure, it's not too interesting in the artistic sense, but it does have a sort of kitsch appeal for the biggest fans of the '60s. I can't imagine I'd recommend this album to anybody. Just listen to "Boots" a serious listen and then go from there.
Read the track reviews:
Boots
How Does That Grab You? (1966)
Album Score: 11
I disliked the debut Nancy Sinatra album so much that I vowed to never to listen to her again. I broke that vow and re-evaluated that album a few days later and settled that it was merely "below par." That album did contain an annoying amount of bad covers (The go-go dancer version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" is a tough pill to swallow, you know). But this time, she covers songs that are more up her alley.
She covers beautiful ballads like "The Shadow of Your Smile" from the movie The Sandpiper, "Until It's Time for You to Go" by Native American folkie Buffy Sainte-Marie and "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" by Sonny Bono. Her frequent collaborator who wrote most of the non covers on Boots and much of the material afterwards, Lee Hazlewood, contributes in a less frequent but bigger way. He manages to write an excellent bluesy jazz tune "Not the Lovin' Kind," a stellar way to open the album. His "Sand" seems like an inspired take-off of lush The Beach Boys Pet Sounds style. And, he even manages to have quite a bit of fun with the quasi-novelty song "The Last of the Secret Agents."
Apart from a few of the Hazlewood songs, the arrangements aren't much to talk about ... but even that's to its benefit. Nancy Sinatra is a very good singer above all else, and the instrumentals should play second fiddle to her voice. They take that advice frequently here. However, the upbeat, more heavily instrumented tunes are much-appreciated to give the effort some diversity.
Yes, I like Nancy Sinatra here. The weak moments are few and far between, which is the opposite impression I got from Boots. I hope she kept up with that. (I have no idea as of this moment.)
Read the track reviews:
How Does That Grab You?
Nancy in London (1966)
Album Score: 9
Nancy Sinatra albums seem so difficult to digest sometimes. There were a few interesting and near-great moments on her previous album How Does That Grab You?. While this album definitely has its fair share of moments, there's quite a bit of mediocrity.
At the very least, this album isn't as bad as Boots. The vomit-inducing moments are lovingly kept to a minimum. But let's not dwell on those. Let's talk about the highlights! I do like how this album starts. Certainly Sinatra's take on "On Broadway" could have been much worse. But there's something interesting about the instrumentation that just manages to grab my ear. It was nice that the producers weren't just making corny music ---- although they certainly screwed up songs like "I Can't Grow Peaches On a Cherry Tree" royally.
Speaking of the production, I definitely have a love-hate relationship with it. On one hand, their brand of '60s rock is usually enjoyable. The drums pack a powerful punch and there's the charming use of the type of bass guitar that was popularized by Johnny Cash. They also like lending the songs an epic feel thanks to some elaborate violin (and sometimes horn) arrangements, and these vocal 'oohs.' Unfortunately, they go too far with that frequently and end up drowning out Nancy's voice, which I do like very much.
Naturally, this album is full of covers, and a good handful of Lee Hazlewood songs. He doesn't contribute anything as great as he did in the previous album, but he does at least deliver with "100 Years." That's a great, complex song that should be loved by everyone. I also enjoyed the song "Summer Wine." But Hazlewood is awfully spotty sometimes --- his compositions "Shades" and notoriously "Tony Rome" just don't deliver.
And the funniest songs is "Life's a Trippy Thing," a duet with Nancy and her father. Actually, that's a horrible track, but at least we get to hear Frank Sinatra sing "I'm glad to be a ding-a-ling." I guess that just proves I never matured past the third grade since I laughed at that so frequently!
Read the track reviews:
True Blue
Sugar (1966)
Album Score: 7
Poor Nancy Sinatra. She has to record all these old-timey jazz classics probably because her evil father was trying to force the death of rock 'n' roll with his telepathic powers. Or maybe she just wanted to record this album because she felt like it. Either one.
At any rate, that's all this album is worth. It's just a bunch of covers. Now, the original songs she covered are usually quite good --- a few classics even chosen from Irving Berlin. (And to get one thing clear, I never cared about jazz music, so many of these just sound 'familiar,' and I don't have the means to compare them to the original version.)
The instrumentation is strictly a mixed bag. On the one hand, they do everything by the book. Jazzy horn arrangements, ukulele, a shuffley drum beat --- all the elements are in their right places. The problem is that the instrumentation is overwhelmingly not inspired. It's so by-the-book that it's soulless. A few times, their by-the-book methods weren't done right. A few tracks just sound completely wrong. Furthermore, the instrumentation gets terribly annoying after awhile --- they don't vary it up much. The worst is their jazzy brass sections. They were done pretty well on "Sweet Georgia," but having to listen to them time after time (with no real virtuosos in the studio) is unnerving. They cut quite a lot of corners, and it shows. Poor Nancy didn't even seem like she rehearsed this much.
Now I do like Sinatra's voice, but 80-85 percent of the time, she comes off like a karaoke singer. These are not the type of songs she was suited to sing although she's certainly capable. All I need to prove my point is to listen to "Love Eyes," which is by far the best track of the album. It's original and it requires a husky singer with a lot of attitude (and composer Lee Hazlewood wrote it for her). It's so great that it glistens.
Well, they were definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for this one. You can tell, because they had to use a picture of Nancy in a bikini pulling her panties down for the album cover. Sixty percent of the people who bought this probably just wanted the picture.
Read the track reviews:
Sugar
Country, My Way (1967)
Album Score: 6
First of all, the people in charge of arranging and producing this album were complete hacks and had no clue what they were doing. It's not even the fact that they incorporate studio musicians who only seem to have a rudimentary understanding of their instruments that bugs me... It's that VIRTUALLY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE SONGS ARE SO BLAND, GENERIC AND UNIMAGINATIVE THAT IT HURTS. The worst offender of them all are the corny back-up singers whose evil presence the producers INSIST must be in every one of these songs. Not once do they sound good, and by the end of the album, it grates on my nerves. That aspect was so poorly conceived that I felt the need to mention how annoying they are in every one of my track reviews where they're present; they are precisely what ruins this album.
The thing is, this is a country-western album, and those corny vocals just make matters worse. I freely admit that I dislike most country-western music ....... but even I feel uncomfortable when incompetent producers defecate on the genre like this. To give you a frame of reference, I'd probably be "pleasantly bored" with this album if they axed those irritating back-up singers (preferably with a real axe), because the source material they use is usually well-chosen and melodic. Furthermore, Sinatra's voice seems essentially suited for this stuff unlike how she sounded in her jazz album Sugar. Country, My Way is a lost opportunity, indeed.
The only creative person associated with Nancy Sinatra is Lee Hazlewood who only contributes one song here, "By the Way (I Still Love You)." It's not such a bad tune, but the production destroys it. No wonder Hazlewood only forked over one song!! He ends up duetting with Sinatra in a cover, "Jackson," which happens to be one of the better songs here.
Easily the highlight of the album has nothing to do with country-western at all, and it sounds like this moron producer was far away from its conception, recording and mixing. "Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham" is a unique, lush treatment of a song that works despite all the odds. Sinatra's vocal performance is perfect and the unusual string arrangements (especially for a folk song that sounded designed to only be performed with an acoustic guitar and maybe a harmonica) gives it a weird but appealing atmosphere. That's just one good song out of the bunch, though. Buy it on iTunes if you're really that interested! There are a few other nice songs such as "End of the World," which has a good minute before the back-up singers come in.
In short, don't even think about getting this album. I would say "don't touch this album with a 10-foot pole," but I wouldn't want you to disgrace the pole. (For the record, I gave this album a somewhat respectable rating out of more technical aspects --- the melodies are usually good and Sinatra's vocals are great. These factors keep the album from completely sinking in the vat of toxic waste.)
Read the track reviews:
Country, My Way
Nancy & Lee (1968)
Album Score: 11
What have I been saying all along? The only talented person ever associated with Nancy Sinatra was Lee Hazelwood. When you see that Nancy & Lee released an album together, then that should be enough to make you wet your pants, throw out those awful Nancy Sinatra albums and just get this! It doesn't even matter that this is partly a new, original album and compilation of songs that already appeared in Sinatra's discography. So this is one of the first albums you should own if (for whatever reason) you're seriously thinking about delving into Sinatra's career and you're absolutely against buying "Greatest Hits" packages. Normally I'd feel pretty sore about an album with songs that already appeared on previous albums... But since most of those albums aren't worth getting, they'd might as well have been combined to make something more worthwhile.
You can find "Some Velvet Morning," "Sand" and "Summer Wine" all here --- in their original albums, they have somewhat been the unusual, striking highlights. Here, they are chums among peers! I believe Hazlewood had complete control over the song production, which must be the reason this album is so well orchestrated. This quality makes Nancy & Lee the exact polar opposite of the horribly produced albums Sugar and Country, My Way... Really, hearing this album allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe it wasn't such a waste of time reviewing these albums that nobody cares about.
OK, there's one pretty bad song. The overly cutesy "Greenwich Village Song Salesman" doesn't have much value at all except the singers sure seem to have had fun with it. It's not that fun for the listener, though, and the melody is pretty cruddy. I'm also not too thrilled with "Storybook Children," which can be described as tasteful though boring. But frankly, I feel relieved that I'm listening to a Sinatra albums whose the second worst song can be described as "tasteful." That's a first indeed. My hopes is that can be kept up!!! ... Well it all seems to come down to the producer after all.
The unquestionable highlight of this album is "Some Velvet Morning," which everybody should hear at least once in their life. Sinatra and Hazlewood made a music video of it that you can view on YouTube ... if you dare ... That song is often described as one of the strangest pop singles of all time, and I'm definitely inclined to agree with that.
Read the track reviews:
Nancy & Lee
Movin' With Nancy (1968)
Album Score: 11
To anyone who likes the Lee Hazlewood stuff, this is another highly recommendable Nancy Sinatra album to put in your collection. Six of these songs are his… and the other six are the vast array of show tunes and weird covers for anyone who prefers those. So, in some ways, this is the all-encompassing Nancy Sinatra album!
Of course, the best song on this album is "Some Velvet Morning"… It was the best thing about Nancy & Lee as well! Grr… why must those record company bastards make us buy the same songs twice!! If you thought that was bad, here's another instance of "Jackson" making it the third time it popped up in unchanged form in her discography. They should have just written new songs. Man. Another one, "Friday's Child," appeared in Nancy in London, but this was an actual re-recording, and a massive improvement. Instead of the sloppy, and somewhat cheeseball original, this one has dark, brilliantly orchestrated strings and a really awesome electric guitar noodling throughout. So that's cool.
The two-minute "I Gotta Get Out of This Town" opens the album, and it's quite a spirited piece with Sinatra giving her great bad-girl vocal performance and punchy albeit typical '60s arrangements. It's nothing more than a fun song to hear. "See the Children" is a great Hazlewood ballad with a fine melody and wonderful sort of contemplative arrangements. It's nothing that'll move you to pieces, but it's endearing. "This Town" is also a fine composition of his, but I think the instrumentation should have been different… I do like the atmosphere, but it seemed much more reserved and smoother, and it would have been more effective if it was brassier.
The covers aren't quite as splendid as those Hazlewood originals, overall, but there are a number of minor gems in here. "Who Will Buy" is a rock 'n' roll interpretation of the song from the hit play Oliver!. It's a beautiful song, and the arrangements are done well… So the idea worked great. "What I'd Say" is a really bizarre cover of the Ray Charles song … so bizarre that I can't decide if I like or hate its sloppiness. That sax solo at the beginning is so hyper that it tries to beat out the general pace of the song! Making it weirder is that there is nothing about Nancy Sinatra's voice that would make one thing that it would suit the material …….. and it really doesn't. Give it credit for being fun, but in the end, I'm never going to want to listen to it again. Frank Sinatra comes in and sings "Younger Than Springtime" all by himself. …Er… whose album is this? And there's an OK though uninspired duet with Dean Martin, "Things." …Well, it doesn't annoy me at least.
There is enough good and holy about this album to make it worth listening to… although they cheated by giving us a lot of the same songs from previous albums. But whatever. Modern technology fixes this; you only have to get them once from iTunes.
There is enough good and holy about this album to make it worth listening to… although they sort of cheated by giving us a lot of the same songs from previous albums. But whatever. Modern technology fixes this; you only have to get them once from iTunes.
Read the track reviews:
Movin' With Nancy
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