These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (1966)

Click the YouTube video below to listen:



Download MP3s from Amazon.com:

• Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

By: Nancy Sinatra (born June 8, 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is the daughter of singer and actor Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato. For her fourth birthday, Phil Silvers and Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the song "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)", which her father recorded.

Nancy has had 24 Billboard-charting hits, including "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?", "You Only Live Twice", "Sugar Town", "Summer Wine" (with Lee Hazlewood), "Lightning's Girl", "Jackson" (with Lee Hazlewood), "Some Velvet Morning" (with Lee Hazlewood), "Lady Bird" (with Lee Hazlewood), "Somethin' Stupid" (with Frank Sinatra,) "Love Eyes", "Did You Ever?" (with Lee Hazlewood) and 'The Highway Song".

"These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" was produced by its writer, Lee Hazlewood, who is best known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy in the late 1950s and with Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s.

The distinctive glissando riff was played on upright bass by Chuck Berghofer. Other musicians on the record were Hal Blaine on drums, Al Casey, Tommy Tedesco, Billy Strange and Mike Deasy on guitars, Ollie Mitchell, Roy Caton and Lew McCreary on horns, and Carol Kaye on electric bass. (It was a common practice among record producers in the 1960s, such as Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, to add dimension to the bass sound with more than one bassist.)

Nancy Sinatra said in 1970: "The image created by 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin'' isn't the real me. 'Boots' was hard, and I'm as soft as they come."

Release date: February 1966.

Chart position: #1 (US, 1 week), #1 (UK, four weeks).

It was preceded at #1 in the US by "Lightnin' Strikes" (Lou Christie) and succeeded by "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" (SSgt. Barry Sadler).

It was preceded at #1 in the UK by "Michelle" (Overlanders) and succeeded by "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (Walker Brothers).

Nancy Sinatra was the first American female vocalist to have a #1 UK hit since Connie Francis, with "Stupid Cupid" in 1958.

The Top Ten Songs: February 26, 1966 (US Billboard).

1. "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" (Nancy Sinatra)
2. "Lightnin' Strikes" (Lou Christie)
3. "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" (SSgt. Barry Sadler)
4. "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" (Stevie Wonder)
5. "My World Is Empty Without You" (Supremes)
6. "My Love" (Petula Clark)
7. "Don't Mess With Bill" (Marvelettes)
8. "California Dreamin'" (The Mamas And The Papas)
9. "Elusive Butterfly" (Bob Lind)
10. "Working My Way Back To You" (Four Seasons)

Written by: Lee Hazlewood (born July 9, 1929 in Mannford, Oklahoma, died of renal cancer August 4, 2007 in Henderson, Nevada).

Other hit songs written/co-written by Hazlewood include "The Fool", "Rebel Rouser", "Houston", "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?", "Sugar Town", "Summer Wine", "Lightning's Girl", "Some Velvet Morning", "Lady Bird", "Love Eyes", and more.

Hazlewood is considered partly responsible, as record producer, for the distinctive "twang" sound of guitarist Duane Eddy.

Download MP3s from Amazon.com:

• Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

Want to submit facts and trivia about this song? Leave a comment!