Nancy Sinatra - Lightning's Girl: Greatest Hits 1965-1971

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
Featuring 28 Tracks and Over 75 Minutes of Music, "Greatest Hits 1965-1972: Lightning's Girl" is the Most Comprehensive and Appealing Career Overview to Date of 1960's Pop Sensation Nancy Sinatra. Comes with a Full Color 16 Page Booklet, Text from the Lady Herself, Striking Photos and Album and EP Sleeve Reproductions.

Tracks:

These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
Lightening's Girl
How Does That Grab You Darlin'?
Good Time Girl
You Only Live Twice
The Last Of The Secret Agents
This Town
So Long Babe
Sorry 'Bout That
Sugar Town
Friday's Child
Love Eyes
Drummer Man
Something Stupid
Jackson
Did You Ever?
Summer Wine
Lady Bird
Some Velvet Morning
Sand
I've Been Down For So Long (It Looks Like Up To Me)
Sundown Sundown
Down From Dover
Paris Summer
100 Years
Hook And Ladder

Album Details

Featuring 28 Tracks and Over 75 Minutes of Music, "Greatest Hits 1965-1972: Lightning's Girl" is the Most Comprehensive and Appealing Career Overview to Date of 1960's Pop Sensation Nancy Sinatra. Comes with a Full Color 16 Page Booklet, Text from the Lady Herself, Striking Photos and Album and EP Sleeve Reproductions.

Customer Reviews:

All You Need to Hear from Nancy, Jr........2005-02-17

In 2004 I saw a no-longer-young Nancy Sinatra doing her hits from back when. It wasn't the same without the great orchestration or Lee Hazlewood. I can guarantee though the very best of her works including my favorite "Summer Wine" are all here. There are even bonus songs I frankly don't remember. Nothing wrong with this package, but note: it is a little pricey.

--.......2003-09-24

Nancy was a vixen, but the story here is Lee Hazlewood. Although she was a capable vocalist, Sinatra was merely the fortunate soul to benefit from Hazlewood's vision. On these Sinatra records, Hazlewood was able to construct a sound that borrowed equally from Brill Building pop, country, psychedelia and Ennio Morricone without really committing to any of them.

The first half of this compilation is made up of songs that Nancy sang alone with Hazlewood writing most of the tunes. 'These Boots...' is an undeniable high-stepping classic while others like 'This Town,' 'Friday's Child,' 'Love Eyes' and the rotten-toothed sweetness of 'Sugar Town' effectively channel Lee's warp through Nancy's voice. Some of the outside-written material on this first half keeps the compilation from being five stars.

The second half features the duets between Nancy and Lee and these are the songs that you'll wet your pants over. Most of these duets make you feel like you're witnessing theater because the male-female vocal interplay is almost always call-and-response and conversational and the production is usually grand and sweeping. But the conversations we hear are not between two young lovers, they're between a middle-aged swashbuckler and a younger girl, with the girl's level of vulnerablility and world-weariness varying depending on the song. This is just one of the huge chances Hazlewood takes in his music.

Hazlewood's voice is a bizarre marriage of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond and he uses it to portray rugged characters who have a 'past' while Nancy plays either the sassy tease or the angelic siren to whom Lee pleads for acceptance and love and always fails. Due to the singers' contrast in ages and Lee's outlaw persona, the interaction between the two voices/characters sometimes doesn't come off as good-natured, but uneasy with hints of an Electra complex. However, backing these unwholesome vignettes with smart pop production that was good enough to scare up some chart action makes them great art, and Hazlewood a great artist.

'Some Velvet Morning' is perhaps the crowning achievement of the Sinatra/Hazlewood partnership. Here, Nancy plays her angelic siren role as Phaedra, a pristine Tinkerbell-ish specimen from Lee's past who "gave him life and made it end," scarring him with a pain so deep that he isn't yet able to express it in words. He tells us that some velvet morning when he's straight he'll "open up our gate" and tell us, but as of now, Phaedra still haunts him with disembodied mantras about "flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils, etc." that slither about Lee's thoughts throughout the song to the point where, at the end, they downright interrupt his train of thought in a jarring sequence of heavy-handed tape splices - a move that's completely unexpected and another huge chance taken by Hazlewood that pays off. And that song charted.

The gonzo backwards guitar solo in the middle of the folky, Shakespearean courtship tune, 'Sand,' is also a successful high-dive act by Hazlewood. 'Summer Wine' is wonderful for its innuendo and veiled brothel references. 'Lady Bird' is good, but bears a strong melodic resemblance to Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders' minor hit 'Pamela, Pamela'. 'Jackson' and 'Did You Ever?' are both well-chosen, obscure covers that fit perfectly into Sinatra and Hazlewood's iconography.

It's no exaggeration to say that Lee Hazlewood was one of the greatest artists - musical or otherwise - of the past 50 years. His work challenged the boundaries of pop music without ever ceasing to be pop music, and with Sinatra he challenged how a male-female duet could be executed in the pop market and he succeeded. It's easy to make esoteric work that nobody appreciates and be called avant garde, but being avant garde in a format that most CAN understand and that teens can whistle along to is not easy and it's rarely pulled off.

NANCY SINATRA CAPTURES THE 60'S.......2003-07-19

THIS ALBUM REALLY CAPTURES THE 60'S.THIS GAL WAS FRANK SINATRA'S DAUGHTER BUT SHE HELD HER OWN. AFTER HER DIVORCE FROM TOMMY SANDS, NANCY TELLS US SHE WAS ORIGINALLY BEING GIVEN THE "ANNETTE FUNICELLO TREATMENT" . IT'S NO DOUBT EASY TO IMAGINE ANNETTE SINGING "THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING" BUT NANCY MANAGED TO HAVE SEVERAL BIG HITS WITHOUT EVER BEING COMPARED TO ANYONE ELSE.NANCY HAD A DISTINCTIVE VOICE AND APPEARANCE. WHILE ANNETTE EPITOMIZED THE GOOD GIRL, NANCY HAD MORE OF THE BAD GIRL LOOK. YOU'LL LOVE ALL THE ORIGINAL AND WONDERFUL SONGS IN THIS COLLECTION. IT'S NOT THE ENGLISH INVASION NOR THE HIPPY SOUND, BUT AN ALL-AMERICAN SOUND THAT FOUGHT TO SUSTAIN THE CHARTS.YOU HAVE TO GIVE THESE GIRLS CREDIT, BECAUSE THE ENGLISH SOUND HAD CONQUERED THE WHOLE UNITED STATES!.ENGLAND BROUGHT US SANDY SHAW, CILLA BLACK AND LULU TO NAME A FEW, BUT NANCY STAYED UP THERE IN THE CHARTS.DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS COLLECTION.YOU'LL REALLY ENJOY GOING BACK TO THOSE WONDERFUL 60'S. BUY IT!!!!

Five Stars For Content; Three For Mastering.......2003-07-02

This is easily the most comprehensive single-cd retrospective of Nancy's work to emerge yet, running her full gamut of musical styles. They're all covered: The gleeful verbal spankings of "Boots" and "Sorry 'bout That," the surprisingly bluesy "Friday's Child," the catchy country of "Jackson" and "Hooks and Ladder," and the haunting beauty of "Summer Wine" and "Some Velvet Morning"--both with Lee Hazlewood. The latter of those is the epitome of a haunting, atmospheric, ethereal ballad that roams your head for awhile after you hear it: I loved it when it came out in the winter of 1968, and it still blows me away to this day! I was a bit disappointed, however, in some of the mastering: Particularly during the section highlighting Nancy & Lee's duets, tape hiss is quite noticeable--even between the songs (like someone threw on a second-generation reel-to-reel tape and just let it roll.) An older mix of "Summer Wine" is used, with the vocals all the way to one stereo channel and the song faded out where the old 45 was faded. The far superior mix, also running almost a half-minute longer, can be found on "Fairy Tales & Fantasies." (I had hoped to be able to sell that cd--given that ten of its fifteen tracks are included here--but after hearing the above example and the mediocre mastering on the other N&L tracks, believe I'd be wise to hold onto it.) But hey, don't let me talk you out of buying this cd if you want a great Nancy comp: This far eclipses Rhino's best-of from several years back--which only had 18 tracks while this boasts 26 (with only one stinker in the bunch, "Drummer Man." And certainly, "You Only Live Twice" stands shoulder-to-shoulder with "Goldfinger" as the crown jewels of the Bond movie themes. Finally, the price is quite reasonable for an import with the amount of music contained here. So by all means, buy this cd--but you also might want to get "Fairy Tales & Fantasies" to get the best available sound on the N&L duets.

Her Greatest Hits........2003-06-12

Ever since her career launched off in 1965, Nancy became a national icon with the release of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", one of many songs that mentor Lee Hazlewood was able to formulate. Overshadowed by a very famous close relative (you know who.. here's a hint - his eyes are blue) - Nancy was shown as a one hit wonder who tried to gain success from her father's name. The one hit wonder title, however, is only a misled assumption. This CD captures 26 of Nancy's greatest songs that had been recorded over six years. With her several LP releases, Nancy's popularity spread like how a cold would with the song "Boots" that became a national phenomenom. Songs on this CD contain songs which involve duets with her mentor Lee Hazlewood and dearest father. For me, the highlights of this CD are "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," "Lightning's Girl," "You Only Live Twice," "This Town," "Jackon," "Summer Wine," "Some Velvet Morning," and "100 Years," - Most of which were written by Lee Hazlewood. Nancy and Lee made a great team together - their chemisty was undeniable. Although these songs may be favorites of mine, there are many other songs that are just delightful to listen to.

This was released in 2002 - it was about time they finally released a CD which contained all of Nancy's best. But as a big fan of Nancy, I have most of her CDs and there are many great songs that are of absence. Overall, this CD contains many great Nancy Sinatra hits which you may never grow tired of listening to. Nancy Sinatra captures what was the 60s era where great, fun music was out there and more people were being introduced to great music.

Music:

Music

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