A veritable chocolate box of eleven perfect musical treats: traditional sweeping ballads, throwaway bubblegum pop and psychedelic country, NANCY & LEE has it all.
Largely forgotten by the wider public it’s taken on a cult following with the likes of Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain, Nick Cave, Mile Kane, and even Megadeth (apparently!) covering tracks.
Lee Hazelwood was best known as producer for guitarist Duane Eddy but went on to produce Nancy Sinatra’s big hit ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’’ in ‘66. Two years later he and Nancy released this album of pop gems. This time Hazelwood stood in front of the mic alongside lovely Nance for a series of duets.
Hazelwood has a baritone that makes Johnny Cash sound like a choirboy. His deep vocals start the album with their version of ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’’. It’s so low you’ll think the speakers are going to blow!
To be fair the versions of 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling' and 'Jackson' don't touch those by The Righteous Brothers or Johnny & June (which actually followed Nancy & Lee's version only months later) but they are a hell of a lot of fun. Where the album really strikes a chord though are Hazelwood's own brilliant compositions.
'Summer Wine' is a swooning romance between a cowboy who's new in town (Hazelwood) and a woman who gets him drunk on wine, seduces him and she steals off into the night with his silver spurs and all his money. The Harlot! On ‘Sundown, Sundown’ Lee sings “there’s no one in this world for me / there ain’t ever gonna be” you really imagine he’s a lone ranger walking out into the Wild West wilderness. The on this orchestration this track (by the brilliantly named Billy Strange) is epic!
And then there’s the brilliant ‘Some Velvet Morning’ which was (according to the Daily Telegraph) the best duet ever recorded. It’s pure-pop psychedelia with Hazelwood singing about a mysterious siren called Phaedra who educates him in the ways of love. It alternates with Sinatra’s fairy-like vocals advising him to “look at us but do not touch”. Primal Scream covered it on their ‘Evil Heat’ album with Kate Moss providing the female vocals against a techno backdrop. Not as memorable. The Verve were also inspired by it when they named their Urban Hymns track, Velvet Morning.
‘Storybook Children’ and ‘Elusive Dreams’ are big sweeping ballads, the latter particularly mournful. It record ends the jaunty ‘I’ve Been Down So Long (It Looks Like To Me)’.
NANCY & LEE is a forgotten classic ’60 record. While not as revolutionary as your Sgt Pepper or Pet Sounds it more than holds it’s own in terms of classic songwriting. Give it a go.
'SOME VELVET MORNING'
'SUNDOWN, SUNDOWN'
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