The reason why Nancy Sinatra called her father’s biggest hit “terrible”
You might think that Nancy Sinatra was always destined for stardom because of her incredibly famous father, Frank. However, after signing to his label Reprise Records in 1961, it was only four years before they threatened to drop Sinatra due to her lack of success.
Luckily, Lee Hazlewood, who had been working with Duane Eddy, stepped in with some advice that would change the course of Sinatra’s career. He advised her to sing lower, saying: “You can’t sing like Nancy Nice Lady anymore. You have to sing for the truckers”. She changed her look to match the popular fashions in London, bleaching her hair and sporting heavy eye makeup with frosty lips. Hazelwood penned her now-iconic track ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin”, and before Sinatra knew it, she was an icon of the swinging sixties worldwide.
Sinatra released a string of successful hits, including ‘Sugar Town’, ‘How Does That Grab You Darlin’?’ and a cover of Cher’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’, which has become better known than the original. In 1967, Sinatra collaborated with her father to cover ‘Somethin’ Stupid’, initially recorded by husband and wife duo Carson Parks and Gaile Foote. Singing as if they were lovers, the Sinatras’ version of the song was dubbed “the incest song” by DJs. Still, the song was a success, reaching the top spot in both the UK and the US, spending nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Easy Listening charts.
However, two years later, Frank Sinatra released one of his biggest hits: ‘My Way’. Set to the instrumentals of the French song ‘Comme d’habitude’, composed by Jacques Revaux, Paul Anka wrote the English lyrics especially for Sinatra to sing. Anka revealed: “When my record company caught wind of it, they were very pissed that I didn’t keep it for myself. I said, ‘Hey, I can write it, but I’m not the guy to sing it.’ It was for Frank, no one else.”
The song was extremely successful, spending over 75 weeks in the UK top 40, although it never reached number one. Countless musicians have covered the song, from Sid Vicious to Elvis Presley to Nina Simone.
It became Sinatra’s signature hit, much to his dismay, as his daughter Tina once revealed: “He didn’t like it. That song stuck and he couldn’t get it off his shoe. He always thought that song was self-serving and self-indulgent.”
Tina hasn’t been the only child of Sinatra’s to discuss the song. In 2021, Nancy Sinatra spoke to The Independent and discussed the iconic track in relation to Donald Trump, who played the song as he took his final flight as president. Sinatra said: “It doesn’t matter. It’s not my favourite; it wasn’t my dad’s either. It’s a terrible song.”
She also found great irony in Trump’s use of the song throughout his career, stating, “When he first used it, I remember saying ‘and now the end is near’ is a perfect, perfect first line for him. It took a little longer than I’d hoped – but it ended.”