How Nancy Sinatra Turned Major Arguments and Something Called the “Dumb Sound” Into Massive Hits

Nancy Sinatra’s performance of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” fit just like a pair of well-loved, worn-in leather boots: iconically cool with just the right blend of cheekiness and coquettishness. Yet, while the song feels tailor-made for Sinatra, this actually wasn’t the case. In fact, the young singer had to fight for a chance to cut the record, from the first day she heard it to the day of her recording session at United Western Recorders in Hollywood.

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The song’s creator, Lee Hazlewood, had been trying to convince Sinatra not to cut a version of “Boots” since the day he showed it to her at her parents’ house. (Yes, as in Frank’s place.) Sinatra was at risk of getting booted off her father’s record label after a string of commercial flops. Hazlewood was tasked to pitch her songs that could be her next hit. Toward the end of their meeting, Hazlewood showed Sinatra his song “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”.

When Sinatra expressed interest in that particular track, Hazlewood hesitated. He said he wrote it as a man’s song, and anyway, he wanted to record it. But Sinatra insisted that the song would sound too brash coming from a man. Moreover, her father, the blue-eyed crooner, agreed that “Boots” was the one hit that Hazlewood brought to the house that day.

Lee Hazlewood Fought Long and Hard Over “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”

Lee Hazlewood finally ceded to Nancy Sinatra’s near-constant requests to cut a version of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”. But he wasn’t going to make it easy. Hazlewood granted the last half-hour of their mid-November 1965 recording session for “Boots”. Cutting a master take in thirty minutes wasn’t impossible, but certainly wasn’t easy, either. Hazlewood knew that. He and Sinatra bickered about the song up until the moment she was to track her vocals. Once the take started, something special began to take shape.

“We all knew,” Sinatra recalled years later. “There was a feeling in the room. We just knew it. I knew it twice. I knew it then, and I knew ‘Something Stupid’. It’s a good feeling.” And that feeling translated to an efficient half-hour. Sinatra got the master take in just a few tries, and the song would go on to become a massive hit not only for Sinatra but for the 1960s pop canon as a whole.

Why the “Dumb” Sound Worked so Well for Nancy Sinatra

“These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” appeared on Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 full-length debut, Boots. The album featured popular cuts of the day, including The Beatles’ “Day Tripper”, Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”, and The Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By”. With each cut, Sinatra and her producer, Lee Hazlewood, tried to achieve what the latter musician called a “dumb sound.”

“Dumb stuff, as Lee used to call it,” Sinatra explained, “doesn’t mean stupid. It means human and understandable. It was the sound of three guitars, drums, and bass; it was simple. Very simple. I can still see the room, the studio [with Wrecking Crew members] Carol Kaye, Glen Campbell, Donnie Owens. I can still see them all sitting there and chunking away.” She added, “I guess simple was the best way to explain it. Uncomplicated.”

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