The debut album from Nancy Sinatra is out again on a variety of formats thanks to the folks at the Light in the Attic label, and it finally feels as if Nancy's talents are getting the reappraisal they've always deserved. Produced by Lee Hazlewood, Boots is a straightforward pop record with big beat aspirations. If it's not as idiosyncratic as other recordings Lee and Nancy would offer later, the 1966 release stands on its own as a solid long-player, and a showcase for the most talented progeny of the most talented singer this country's ever produced.
Opening with a down-tempo cover of "As Tears Go By", then shifting into an assured run at "Day Tripper", Boots comes into own as a record with Lee's ruminative "I Move Around" and "These Boots are Made for Walkin'", a sassy masterpiece. As was common in the era, the album serves up a bunch of covers of current hits, but one hears this stuff now and the covers and originals sort of blend together, and I'd say that's a comment on how successfully Nancy Sinatra was able to own what she sang. Whether it flowed from the pen of Lennon & McCartney, or Hazlewood, Nancy attacked this stuff with gusto. Her voice as brash on Lee's "So Long, Babe" as it is playful on "Flowers on the Wall".
If Boots offers conventional pleasures, the flashes of Hazlewood's genius as a composer are sprinkled throughout the original selections, with "The City Never Sleeps at Night" being the second genuine masterpiece of a composition on this record. A brassy arrangement pops into action behind Nancy's assured, cooing vocals. That juxtaposition between Lee's odd shifts in tone, or melody and Sinatra's smooth, warm voice is one that would yield further wonderfulness after 1966. But here, on this debut from Nancy Sinatra, we hear something special being born, a persona being shaped, and a composer coming into his own. As much the story of that writer finding his muse, as it is that of a singer stepping out from the shadow of her more famous father, Boots is a real treasure, and one which has never sounded quite as crisp and spry as it does now.
Boots is out now via Light in the Attic Records.
More details on Nancy Sinatra via Nancy Sinatra.
[Photos: Don Sutton]