"
These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" is a
popPop music is a music genre that developed from the mid-1950s as a softer alternative to rock 'n' roll and later to rock music. It has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs...
song composed by
Lee HazlewoodLee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late fifties and singer Nancy Sinatra in the sixties.Hazlewood had a distinctive baritone voice that added an ominous resonance to his music...
and first recorded by
Nancy SinatraNancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra from his first wife, Nancy Barbato, and remains known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".For her fourth birthday, Phil Silvers and Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the song...
. It was released in February 1966 and hit #1 in the United States and United Kingdom Pop charts. Subsequently, many cover versions of the song have been released in a range of styles: pop, rock, punk rock, country, dance, and industrial (see selected list below).
Jessica SimpsonJessica Ann Simpson is an American singer, actress, and television personality who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, and has three gold and two multi-platinum RIAA-certified albums. Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality...
made #14 in the United States in 2005 with her version based on the movie:
The Dukes of Hazzard.
Geri Halliwell Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English recording artist, author and philanthropist. After coming to international prominence as a member of the girl group, the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career and released her debut album Schizophonic...
and
JewelJewel Kilcher , professionally known as Jewel, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet. She has received three Grammy Award nominations and has sold twenty-seven million albums worldwide, and almost twenty million in the United States alone.Kilcher debuted on February 28,...
also released remakes of the song.
The song is often incorrectly listed as "These Boots", "These Boots Were Made for Walkin'" and "These Boots Are Made for Walking."
Nancy Sinatra version
Nancy Sinatra was encouraged by Lee Hazlewood to sing the song as if she were a sixteen-year-old girl giving the brush-off to a forty-year-old man. Sinatra's recording of the song was made with the help of notable
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
session musicians known as
the Wrecking CrewThe Wrecking Crew was a nickname coined by the drummer Hal Blaine after the fact for a group of session musicians in Los Angeles, California, who earned wide acclaim in the 1960s...
. This session included
Hal BlaineHal Blaine is an American drummer and session musician. He is most known for his work with the Wrecking Crew in California. Blaine played on numerous hits by popular groups, including Elvis Presley, Simon & Garfunkel, The Carpenters and the Beach Boys...
on drums, Al Casey,
Tommy TedescoThomas J. Tedesco was an American master session musician and renowned jazz and bebop guitarist.Tedesco's credits, to name a few, include the themes to television's Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, Green Acres, M*A*S*H, Batman, and Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special...
, and
Billy StrangeWilliam E. Strange is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor.Billy Strange teamed up with Mac Davis to write several hit songs for Elvis Presley including "A Little Less Conversation", the theme from Charro!, and "Memories"...
on guitars, Ollie Mitchell, Roy Caton and Lew McCreary on horns,
Carol KayeCarol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions....
on electric bass, and Chuck Berghofer on
double bassThe double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written...
, providing the notable bass line.
According to Carol Kaye,
"Arranger Billy Strange believed in using the two basses together. Producer Lee Hazlewood asked Chuck to put a sliding run on the front of the tune. Chuck complied by playing notes about three tones apart (4-6 frets apart), but Lee stopped the take. "No Chuck, make your sliding notes closer together", and that is what you hear." According to Al Casey,
"Well, Lee and I had been friends forever, and he said, "I've got this song I'm working on, and I want the guitar to play this." And he showed me, because there's a little bit more than banging on an 'E-chord', which is what most people do. There's more to it than that. He said, "I want you to do this on the song.", and he sang the song and played the rhythm guitar lick,
"and I went "Oh, that's cute!", little suspecting it was gonna be huge."
The second single taken from her debut album
BootsBoots is a 1966 studio album by Nancy Sinatra. Billy Strange was the arranger and conductor.- Track listing :#"As Tears Go By" – 2:54#"Day Tripper" – 3:03...
, and follow-up to the minor hit "So Long, Babe," the song became an instant success. In late February 1966, the song topped the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, a move it replicated in similar charts across the world.
When the single was first released, some thought it had to do with the
subway strike in New YorkThe 1966 New York City transit strike was a strike in New York City called by the Transport Workers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union after the expiration of their contract with the New York City Transit Authority . It was the first strike against the TA; pre-TWU transit strikes in 1905, 1910,...
. That same year, Sinatra recorded an early music video for the song. It was produced by Color-Sonics, and played on
ScopitoneScopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. It was a forerunner of music video. The Italian Cinebox/Colorama and Color-Sonics were competing, lesser-known technologies of the time....
video
jukeboxesA jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media. The traditional jukebox is rather large with a rounded top and has colored lighting on the front of the machine on its vertical sides...
. In 1986, for the song's twentieth anniversary, cable station
VH1VH1 is an American cable television network based in New York City...
played this music video.
The song was adopted by troops in the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
when they marched, and Sinatra traveled there in the mid- to late-1960s to perform for the U.S. soldiers. It was used on the soundtrack to
Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American director, writer, producer, and photographer of films, who lived in England during most of the last 40 years of his career...
's
Full Metal JacketFull Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford. The title refers to the full metal jacket bullet type of ammunition used by infantry riflemen. The film follows a squad of U.S...
-Overview of television series:Created by William Broyles, Jr. and John Sacret Young, the series looks at the Vietnam War from a unique perspective: that of the women, military and civilian, who were present during the conflict...
Paul Revere and the Raiders is an American rock band that saw enormous U.S. mainstream success in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s, best-known for U.S...
recorded a revamped version of the song using Sinatra's original vocal track. It appeared on the CD Ride to the Wall, Vol. 2
, with proceeds going to help Vietnam veterans. In addition, the Fembots were introduced to the strains of the opening and closing notes of the song in
Austin Powers: International Man of MysteryAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released in 1997, is the first film of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers who also stars in the title role. Myers also plays Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy...
.
In 2006,
Pitchfork MediaPitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on independent music, especially indie rock...
selected it as the 114th best song of the 1960s. Critic Tom Breihan described the song as "maybe the finest bitchy kiss-off in pop history".
Charts
| Chart (1966) | Peak
position |
|---|
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... | 1 |
UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list... | 1 |
Kent Music ReportThe Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... | 1 |
Megadeth version
MegadethMegadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1983. Founded by Dave Mustaine following his departure from Metallica, the band has since released twelve studio albums, six live albums, two EPs, twenty six singles, thirty-two music videos, and three compilations.As...
covered the song on their 1985 debut album
Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! is the debut album by American thrash metal band Megadeth. It was originally released in 1985 on Combat Records. The album received positive reviews, even from mainstream music critics...
A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
than a
coverIn popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
, featuring alternate lyrics and titled "These Boots" on the release. When the album started selling well, the writer of the song,
Lee HazlewoodLee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late fifties and singer Nancy Sinatra in the sixties.Hazlewood had a distinctive baritone voice that added an ominous resonance to his music...
, began demanding that the song be omitted, due to its being a "perversion of the original".
Dave MustaineDavid Scott Mustaine is the lead/rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and vocalist for the American heavy metal band Megadeth. Mustaine grew up in various Southern California suburbs. He currently resides in Fallbrook, California. Mustaine was also the first lead guitarist and co-songwriter of...
made the point that Hazlewood had been paid
royaltiesRoyalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property right. Royalties are typically a percentage of gross or net sales derived from use of an asset or a fixed price per unit sold of an item...
for years before his complaint, but eventually omitted the song anyway. A censored version of the track can be found on the album's 'deluxe edition' released in 2002.
Dika Newlin version
In the 1995
documentary filmDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
Dika: Murder City is a 1995 documentary film by Michael D. Moore on the late-life punk rock career of composer/singer Dika Newlin. The film features Newlin, who was 74 years old when the film was shot, in concert at a Richmond, Virginia, club where she is wearing black leather garb and singing...
Dika Newlin was a pianist, professor, composer and punk rock singer. She received a Ph.D from Columbia University at the age of 22. She was one of the last living students of Arnold Schoenberg, a Schoenberg Scholar and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond from 1978-2004...
, dressed in leather and backed by the band Apocowlypso, performed a
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
version of the song in a concert sequence.
Jessica Simpson version
Jessica SimpsonJessica Ann Simpson is an American singer, actress, and television personality who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, and has three gold and two multi-platinum RIAA-certified albums. Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality...
recorded her own version of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (and added her own lyrics) for the
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized...
to the film
The Dukes of HazzardThe Dukes of Hazzard is a 2005 film loosely based on the American television series of the same name. The film was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and released to theaters in the US on August 5, 2005 by Warner Bros. Pictures...
(2005). Simpson's cover was co-produced by
Jimmy Jam and Terry LewisJames Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis are an American R&B and pop-music songwriting and record production team...
, and was released as the soundtrack's first
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
in 2005). It became Simpson's fifth top-twenty single in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and its
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
drew some controversy because of its sexual imagery.
Recording and release
Simpson's version of the song is performed from the point of view of her character in The Dukes of Hazzard,
Daisy DukeDaisy Mae Duke is a fictional character, played by Catherine Bach, from the American television series The Dukes of Hazzard. She was the cousin of Bo and Luke, the main protagonists of the show, who were themselves cousins to each other....
, and it has several major differences from Sinatra's version. The song's lyrics were changed almost completely as Simpson felt that they did not accurately convey the feelings needed for the film; in the original Sinatra dealt with a cheating boyfriend, while in the new version Simpson version explore Daisy Duke's personality and experiences. She rewrote the majority of the lyrics herself, although some elements were retained such as the opening line "You keep saying you got something for me..." and the spoken "Are you ready, boots? Start walkin'".
Simpson also added some new music to her version of the song. Whereas the original version did not have a
bridgeIn music, especially occidental popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section. The bridge may be the third eight-bar phrase in a thirty-two-bar form , or it may be used more loosely in verse-chorus form, or, in a compound AABA...
, she created one for the cover. A risqué rap-like/spoken breakdown was added after the bridge. Because of the legalities of songwriting, Simpson has not been credited for the new music or lyrics that she wrote. The production of the song was altered as well. Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis gave the cover a
countryCountry music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
-inspired production because of its relationship to the film The Dukes of Hazzard, but they also added a more
hip hopHip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...
-like beat. "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" is the production duo's second song to contain elements of country music, after
Janet JacksonJanet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Born in Gary, Indiana, and raised in Encino, Los Angeles, California, she is the youngest child of the Jackson family of musicians...
's "
Someone to Call My Lover"Someone to Call My Lover" is a song by American singer Janet Jackson from her seventh studio album, All for You . Co-written and co-produced by Jackson and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the song was released as the album's second single in June 2001....
."
In a current interview with GAC Nights, Jessica stated that her record label did not want to promote the song because of its country feel, even though the song is more pop than country. She said that she told the label "It's a great song and Willie Nelson's on it with me" and she said the label told her pop radio wouldn't understand that importance.
Chart Performance
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" peaked at fourteen on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, and in late 2005 the
RIAAThe Recording Industry Association of America is a group which represents the recording industry distributors in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors, which the RIAA say "create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate sound recordings...
certified the single Gold for 500,000 legal downloads or more. Its digital downloads were high, but radio
airplayAirplay is a term used in the radio broadcasting industry to state how frequently a song is being played on over-the-air radio stations. For example, a song which is being played several times every day would be classed as receiving a large amount of airplay. The explosion of music played on...
was low. It reached the top twenty on Billboard's
Pop 100The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It ranked songs based on airplay on mainstream top 40 radio stations, singles sales, and digital downloads.-History:...
chart, and was Simpson's first single to appear on the chart.
Internationally, was a success, reaching top 5 in several European countries.
It became her biggest hit in Australia, where it reached number two and remained in the top forty for twenty-four weeks. In Ireland was another biggest hit peaking the number 2.
The song also cracked the top five in the UK, where it reached number four and is to date, her highest peaking single in that territory.
It reached the top ten in the chart European Hot 100 Singles,
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
, and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
and the top twenty in
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
,
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
and
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
.
Music video
The
videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
, directed by
Brett RatnerBrett Ratner is an American filmmaker and music video director. He is best known for his films such as The Family Man, Red Dragon, the Rush Hour series, and X-Men: The Last Stand...
, has caused some controversy because of its sexual imagery. The scene was well publicized, with Simpson admitting to the public and the media that she went on the
South Beach dietThe South Beach Diet is a diet plan designed by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietician Marie Almon as an alternative to low-fat approaches such as the Ornish Diet and the Pritikin Diet advocated by the American Heart Association in the 1980s. Although the original purpose of the diet was to...
to achieve her well toned look in the video. Because of its sexual imagery, the music video is banned in all
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern and
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
n nations except
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
,
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
,
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...
, and
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
