The Princess Of Beat Music: Nancy Sinatra |
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During its heyday the beat, this impalpable musical genre (and costume), positioned in between the unconscious protest and the commercial popularity, has seen many kings and princes. Much less were the queens and the princesses of the beat, the female singers who arrived at an undisputed worldwide fame. Perhaps only three have reached this status: Cher (in tandem with her husband Sonny Bono, and later alone), Marianne Faithfull and, lastly, Nancy Sinatra. Of course, other names may come to mind (Sandie Shaw, Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy) but are less authentically beat, and markedly more pop. Among the Italian singers Patty Pravo was definitely a beat icon, but starting from her worldwide hit La bambola (The doll) she was essentially a pop singer, while her rival Caterina Caselli (the first "Piper girl") remained for a longer time a pure beat singer, but she was essentially an Italian phenomenon. |
The
young daughter of the great singer and actor of Italian descent is, among
the three, perhaps the most near to embody the carefree and aggressive sides
of the beat, with his songs of immediate impact (starting with his
unforgettable worldwide hit
These Boots Are Made For
Walkin') thanks to the valuable collaborator and "tutor"
Lee Hazlewood, and with her image sexy
and sporty, typically Californian, echoing the "endless summer" of the surf
and the Beach Boys. |
Another intersection involved the singer with psychedelic and progressive rock. For many (especially in Italy), the discovery and the falling in love with this new genre, at the dawn of the '70s, it happened with a formidable piece of Vanilla Fudge, Some Velvet Morning, presented at a song festival in Venice, but very few among the spectators knew at that time that it was a cover of a single of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, even not so far, musically. It's obvious that the Vanilla Fudge group appreciated very much the nice Nancy. Another thing in common of the three princesses of beat: resilience. Cher was back starting from the '80s as Hollywood diva (reaching up to win an Oscar) and as testimonial of the miracles of cosmetic surgery, Marianne Faithfull, rock singer-songwriter between very much appreciated starting from with the album Broken English of 1979 and her following, as well as Nancy, aside from its famous nude appearance in Playboy in 1995, has not lost his pace, and in 2004 she returned to the scene with a disc, which bears his name, where Bono (not Sonny, the one from U2) sings songs with her, as Joe Cocker, Morrissey, Calexico and other famous musicians definitely post-beat, with good results, although some critics have not failed to express ritual critics, inevitable in any comeback. |
The discs of the sixties of Nancy Sinatra were mainly 45 rpm singles and afterwards 33 rpm LPs. The combination of side A - B side often was varied in subsequent reprints and for different countries and markets. In the following are listed only the original 45 rpm released in the U.S. in the 60s (according to the UK very complete fan site, to which we refer for the complete discography). |
Reprise
R-20017 Cuff Links And A Tie Clip/Not Just Your Friend - 1961 |
Reprise
R-02011 June, July And August / Pensa A Me / Think Of Me (A-side Pensa A Me -
performed by Nancy in Italian) - 1962 |
Videoclips |
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It's possible to view some more images taken from the video clips realized to promote These Boots Are Made For Walkin' and Bang Bang. Other interesting videos that can be viewed normally also on YouTube are Jackson, Some Velvet Morning, Sugar Town. |
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