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    “So Wise, So Warm, So Real”: Nancy and Bobby Darin Reimagine “When I Look In Your Eyes”

    April 26th, 2013 by Andrew

    Nancy Sinatra Bobby Darin

    “So wise, so warm, so real”

    “So wise, so warm, so real”

    Nancy’s connection to Bobby Darin was personal and professional. A close friend of Bobby’s for many years, Nancy graciously allowed him to shoot his self-produced movie, The Vendors, in her house in 1970. Nancy recalls,

    “I pretty much moved out for the time they were shooting
    because there were so many cables and lights and the like that I couldn’t get to the kitchen!”

    In this clip from an interview posted on his website,

    Bobby describes the plot of The Vendors.

    “It’s a kind of a love story against a sordid background.
    It’s about an over-the-hill hooker…and a young junkie folk singer.”

    Written, directed and musically scored by Bobby, the film, which stars Mariette Hartley, Gary Wood, Richard Bakalyan and Dick Lord, has never been released. However, the September 12, 1970 issue of Billboard reported that The Vendors had been “screened the day before he opened his [then-] current engagement at the Landmark Hotel [in Las Vegas].”

    Three years later, Nancy would appear on the February 9, 1973 episode of his second NBC-TV series, The Bobby Darin Show, and collaborate with him on a cover of The Doors’ “Light My Fire.” Nancy remembers the duet with amusing understatement:

    “ 
    Bobby Darin and I did a duet of Light My Fire on his tv show. It was pretty good.”

    Nancy had previously interpreted the song for the Nancy [Twelve Ways] LP and her brother’s Frank Sinatra Jr. With Family And Friends television special, both in 1969.

    Nancy and Bobby also shared an appreciation of Leslie Bricusse’s score for the 1967 motion picture Doctor Dolittle. From that score, each recorded “When I Look In Your Eyes”: Bobby’s rendition on his Bobby Darin Sings Doctor Dolittle LP; Nancy’s version on her Sheet Music CD.

    In the liner notes for Bobby’s record, Arthur P. Jacobs, the film’s producer, recounted Bobby’s interest in the score:

    “When Bobby came to us and said he wanted to do his musical impression of Doctor Dolittle, we were flattered but felt that the musical content of our production was out of Bobby’s usual style. I mean, in one scene Rex [Harrison] sings When I Look In Your Eyes to a seal. How would that sit with a chap who whirred and whirled with Mack The Knife? Bobby’s reply: ‘Lead me to it’.”

    Leslie Bricusse had collaborated on another movie song recorded by Nancy: her James Bond theme, “You Only Live Twice.”

    “John Barry is a genius with movie scores and Leslie Bricusse wrote a perfect lyric.”

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    “The Rebel Chick” in the Pink Bikini

    March 30th, 2013 by Andrew

    Illustrating Sugar’s resonance with fans, Nancy and her friends on Twitter discussed the legendary 1966 record’s timeless music and controversial photograph, in a November 15, 2012 conversation.

    Nancy Sinatra

    Whether or not its banning in Boston was apocryphal, the LP’s cover endures as one of the most provocative and iconic images in popular culture. In the 1960s, Nancy’s pink bikini record jacket was newsworthy as she challenged social norms. In the 2010s, Nancy’s cover concept is tweet-worthy as she is recognized as a pioneer of female empowerment.

    Reflecting the public’s continuing fascination with Sugar’s artwork, Jay Leno (1995), Howie Mandel (1999), and Tony Danza (2004) were anxious to steer their interviews with Nancy to the subjects of her “cutting edge” work and her persona of “The Rebel Chick.”

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    “Summer Wine” in New Thriller

    March 9th, 2013 by Andrew

    Nancy Sinatra

    “Strawberries, cherries and an angel’s kiss in Spring…”

    Summer Wine sheet Music Strawberries, Cherries and an Angel's Kiss in Spring

    A new chapter has been added to the storied history of Nancy & Lee’s perennial “Summer Wine” as director Park Chan-wook features their recording in his first English-language motion picture, Stoker. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman, the psychological thriller arrived in U.S. theaters in limited release on March 1st, with plans for wider distribution in the coming weeks.

    In his FoxNews.com review of the film, Justin Craig notes,

    “[...] a major stand-out is the Nancy Sinatra-Lee Hazlewood ballad ‘Summer Wine,’ which is used over a lengthy scene with [Goode's] Charlie seducing [Kidman's] Evelyn.
    Sinatra and Hazlewood’s duet is an intoxicating accompaniment to the on-screen game
    between Kidman and Goode.”

    Included on Stoker’s original motion picture soundtrack album, “Summer Wine” augments Clint Mansell’s score.

    Nancy Sinatra Summer Wine

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    Nancy’s “Drummer Man”: The Legendary Hal Blaine

    February 21st, 2013 by Andrew

    Nancy Sinatra Hal Blaine

    Documenting the legacy of a group of L.A.-based studio musicians who played on many of Nancy’s recordings and innumerable other classics in the 1960s, Denny Tedesco’s film The Wrecking Crew recognizes the significance of their artistic and cultural contributions. Nancy provides historical perspective in the documentary as she asserts,

    “The musicians were really the unsung heroes of all those hit records.” 

    Following the February 9, 2013 screening of the film at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, as part of the tribute/Q&A (featuring Nancy, Denny, honoree Hal Blaine, Don Randi and Jeff Barry), Nancy presented a David Letterman-style homage to one of those heroes, her drummer, The Wrecking Crew’s Hal Blaine.

    Nancy’s “Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Hal Blaine” 

    10. Hal played on almost all of my 600+ recordings

    9. He played on all of my 570 recordings that didn’t chart

    8. He played on or in all of my TV specials

    7. We slept together in hotels around the world…well, not actually in the same room

    6. He takes me to the world’s worst restaurants

    5. He can boldly yell from the back of the bandstand, “WILL SOMEBODY GIVE THE DRUMMER A LIGHT,” during the show

    4. The legendary Belsky diamond: No, I was never privileged to wear it. It was worn by many. [Hal was born "Harold Simon Belsky"]

    3. His “Hal Blaine Strikes Again!!” stamp took forever to wash off my body, but it’s tattooed now in a place that I cannot mention

    2. [His] keen fashion sense

    The number one reason I love Hal Blaine…

    1. He’s older than I am

    Nancy Sinatra Hal Blaine

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