Five Good Covers: “These Boots Were Made For Walking” (Nancy Sinatra)

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made for Walking” first broke free as 1965 broke into 1966, becoming a worldwide smash in the January of ’66, at least in the world as then existed, the USA and the UK. In truth, it did pretty well everywhere else as well, with Europe, Australia, Singapore and Mexico all loving the sentiment. Writer Lee Hazlewood had based “Boots” on a line of dialogue Nancy’s Dad, Frank, had spoken in the comedy western 4 For Texas, so who better than her daughter to sing it? With the Wrecking Crew team of crack session players in attendance, the song is chiefly notable for the quarter tone walking descent of the bass line, provided by Chuck Berghofer. Indeed, most of the well over 300 covers replicate and repeat this, such is the shorthand of the song.

Since then, “Boots” has become beloved by film makers, with Stanley Kubrick and Oliver Stone amongst the directors using it for, usually, sinister effect, although it has also appeared in one of the Austin Powers films and in the Disney film Cruella. Shorthand, you see, for both the era portrayed in the film and the sort of kinky-booted maven whom Sinatra had enacted in the promo of the time, as featured above.

There have been, clearly, some dreadful clunkers amongst the versions found, setting themselves as apart, at the bottom end, as the few chosen here for the top. Most of the others in between do little more than ape the original. But I know you’ll want to hear some of the duffers, and, believe me, you won’t be disappointed, checking out The New Christy Minstrels, Leningrad Cowboys and Chet Baker. (I accept that the Cowboys may actually not be serious as to the levels of kitsch applied, but Chet, man, what were you thinking, other than, um, expensive habits…..)

Here’s the good ones, all terms, clearly, relative. By and large I have tried to weed out the, um, weedy copycat versions, so beloved of anodyne TV hosts and down on their luck actors “widening their appeal.” OMG, and this monstrosity, which may or may not be a spoof. No one is completely sure.

Jen Jis feat. Melody Gardot – These Boots Were Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra cover)

OK, it’s true, I may have been swayed by the presence of Ms. Gardot, an estimable and undeniably sultry presence on the re-emergent jazz scene of the late noughties. An intriguing back story around a significant road traffic injury, and a slow and laborious recovery, involving sensitivity to sound and learning to play guitar whilst flat on her back, led to an idiosyncratic persona, both bewitching and beguiling. Her first few albums are rather good, earning her a roomful of Grammys, but this stems from later on, in 2019, a collaboration with the Parisian DJ Jen Jis, real name Antoine Chatenet. I like how the classic arrangement of “Boots” is all but discarded, in favor of a standard electro-chillout style, not unattractive in itself. Gardot has little to do beyond reciting the words in a come-hither fashion.

Megadeth – These Boots Were Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra cover)

It isn’t that often we feature Megadeth on these pages, their milieu perhaps an acquired taste. Which makes for all the more pleasure to catch up with this highly personalized cover, where, if they bend any towards any hint of having heard the original, it is surely with tongue in cheek. Perhaps. I hope. Any which way, it is terrific, all OTT metal bombast, the gurning of individual players as overt as the sounds they produce. Even better, Lee Hazlewood said the cover was vile and offensive. Dave Mustaine’s response: “You know what’s vile and offensive? That you guys cashed the check for 10 years before you said anything.” Game, set and match, Mustaine!

Barry Adamson & Anita Lane – These Boots Are Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra cover)

Well, this is different, with little to associate it much with any other version, it being standard blaxploitation movie funk, at least until the vocal chimes in. Am I alone in thinking Anita Lane spoils the flow? Well, never mind, she adds the necessary source melody. As for Barry Adamson, an early Bad Seed (Brit, not Aussie), this Stockport native first hit vinyl as at the bassist on Magazine’s “Shot By Both Sides.” After his sojourn with Nick Cave he entered a bizarre world, whereby his jazz-electronica vibe was informed as much by soundtrack music: John Barry, Ennio Morricone, all of that, as by anything more remotely contemporary. This 1991 single, with Anita Lane, another Cave alumnus, did not chart. Pity.

The Layabouts – The Boots Were Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra cover)

I like this one. Not entirely sure why – possibly the hint of ska within the upfront delivery, along with the ridiculous percussion. So who are the Layabouts of this 1982 iteration? There’s enough bands out there by that name. Well, neither the North London electro-house band, nor the Auckland, NZ, beat band, nor the Belgian 60’s pop outfit, so probably the Detroit covers band. But no, I’m wrong, this is the Sydney, Australia, 70’s band, also known as Leroy’s Layabouts, who professed to be jump blue exponents, which just about fits. The album this is lifted from seems a hotch notch of the prime cuts provided by these guys, and two other bands of a similar persuasion. Credit where credit’s due, I’m willing to bet this is their first appearance here.

Lucy Kaplansky – These Boots Were Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra cover)

On to a more serious vein. Lucy Kaplansky has at least the advantage of a relatively established career and reputation to maintain. Whilst the scaffolding is much as Hazlewood divined, the rendition has a rockabilly presence that transcends it almost beyond parody or pastiche. Almost? Such is the legacy of the song that it is near impossible to lose sight of the original, but Kaplansky gets as near as any in gifting “Boots” a whole new slant. I particularly enjoy the syncopation in the descending bass line. A gifted singer and writer, she is fond of covers, her many releases containing many, often from well without her country/Americana comfort zone, for which she is to be applauded. If nothing else, let this post be a pointer into her repertoire.

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