Return to These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (thing)

"These boots are made for walkin'
'n that's just what they'll do
one o'these days these boots
are gonna walk all over you..."

The middling, twangless whine of Miss Nancy Sinatra. And then back to that corny-cute descending acoustic bassline of the intro. The #1 song in the US, early in 1966. Produced by Lee Hazlewood, an underrated auteur of the day, and an occasional collaborator of Miss Sinatra.

She couldn't sing (not that there's anything wrong with that sometimes). In the right hands, this becomes the theme song for an American Emma Peel, maybe, but here it's just a nice novelty, quintessential go-go music (as in "go-go boots" or "go-go girl" dancers, dancing to a lite "yeah-yeah" beat, not as in Trouble Funk - drop the fuckin' bomb, indeed) submerging a pop-country song; L.A. session-lifer horns at the end is the giveaway that we're not in Nashville.

This was an era in which her father tried to use his Rat Pack juice to help his kids achieve fame and fortune. I think Frank still owned Reprise Records (now part of Time Warner) at this time. Nancy was signed to the label, and maybe Frank Jr. (previously famous as a kidnapping victim) as well. Little Frank would occasionally make guest appearances with The Boss (e.g., on Dean Martin's TV variety show), as a means of getting some exposure. I could probably add a Mia Farrow joke here as well (I think she was married to The Boss at this time), but that wouldn't be fair.

It didn't work all that well, though Frank Jr. did well in later years as Frank's musical director - more nepotism perhaps, but Junior was no buffoon in the gig.


This song is one of my earliest childhood memories. It's playing on "W-A-Beatle-C", on the portable radio in the bathroom (it was a song you couldn't escape at the time); Mum's bathing me (scrub-a-dub-dub, the bubble bath, rubber duckie, the whole schmear), probably hoping the Little Tyke will somehow acquiesce to the bedtime ritual ("y'know, maybe a spoonful of Johnny Walker Red in his warm milk...") so she can get back to her grad-school homework.

The bookies normally had it:
Kid sleeps without incident - 5-1
Wide-awake kid drives parents crazy - 2-1

Existing:

Non-Existing: