Nancy Sinatra born 8 June 1940

Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey) 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'". 

Growing up as the child of one of the greatest icons in American music can't be easy, but Nancy Sinatra managed to create a sound and style for herself fully separate from that of her (very) famous father, and her sexy but strong-willed persona has endured with nearly the same strength as the image of the Chairman of the Board. Nancy Sinatra was born in the Summer of 1940, while her father, Frank Sinatra, was singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra; as the daughter of show business royalty, Nancy grew up in the spotlight, and made her first appearance on television with her father in 1957. 

It wasn't long before Nancy developed aspirations of her own as a performer — she had studied music, dancing, and voice through much of her youth — and in 1960 she made her debut as a professional performer on a television special hosted by her father and featuring guest star Elvis Presley, then fresh out of the Army. After appearing in a number of movies and guest starring on episodic television, Nancy was eager to break into music, and she signed a deal with her father's record label, Reprise. However, her first hit single, 1966's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," made it clear she had the talent and moxie to make it without her father's help. 

Sounding both sexy and defiant, and belting out a definitive tough-chick lyric over a brassy arrangement by Bill Strange (and with the cream of L.A.'s session players behind her), "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" was an immediate and unstoppable hit, and took the "tuff girl" posturing of the Shangri-Las and the Ronettes to a whole new level. A number of hits followed, including "How Does That Grab You," "Sugar Town," and the theme song to the James Bond picture You Only Live Twice. Nancy also teamed up with her father for the single "Somethin' Stupid," which raced to the top of the charts in 1967. 

                                   

Most of Nancy's hits were produced by Lee Hazlewood, who went on to become a cult hero on his own and recorded a number of memorable duets with her, including "Sand," "Summer Wine," and the one-of-a-kind epic "Some Velvet Morning." Nancy reinforced her "bad girl" persona in 1966 with co-starring role opposite Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels, the Roger Corman film that helped kick off the biker flick cycle of the 1960s.

In the early '70s; she also teamed up with Elvis Presley in the 1968 movie Speedway. Nancy continued to record into the early '70s, but in 1970 she married dancer Hugh Lambert (a brief marriage to singer and actor Tommy Sands ended in 1965), and she devoted most of her time to her new life as a wife and mother, as well as working with a number of charitable causes. 

In 1985, she published the book Frank Sinatra: My Father, and became increasingly active in looking after her family's affairs; she published a second book on Frank Sinatra in 1998 and currently oversees the Sinatra Family website. In 1995, Nancy returned to the recording studio with a country-flavored album called One More Time, and she helped publicize it by posing for a sexy photo spread in Playboy magazine. Nancy launched a concert tour in support of the album, and in 2003 teamed up with Hazlewood to record a new album together, Nancy & Lee 3, which sadly was not released in the United States. 

However, Nancy soon returned to the recording studio at the urging of longtime fan Morrissey, and in the fall of 2004 she released a new disc simply entitled Nancy Sinatra, an ambitious set which included contributions from members of U2, Pulp, Calexico, Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and other contemporary rock performers. The album's release was followed by more live work from Nancy, including a memorable appearance at Little Steven's International Underground Garage Rock Festival 2004, in which she performed songs from her new album as well as "These Boots Are Made for Walkin" backed by an all-star band (including a horn section) and flanked by dozens of frugging go-go dancers. 

Over the next two decades, Sinatra would continue to make appearances on-stage and onscreen while turning her attention to archival recording projects. She released Shifting Gears, a collection of 15 unreleased Billy Strange-produced recordings of show tunes, all excavated from her personal vaults, on her Boots Enterprises imprint in 2013. Light in the Attic released the compilation Start Walkin' 1965-1976 in 2021; it was the first in the label's reissue campaign called the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series. Several of her albums were reissued in lush packing with new liner notes and bonus tracks. The campaign dovetailed with the label's reissues of Lee Hazlewood material and in 2023, Nancy & Lee Again received its first reissue since its 1972 release. 

(Edited from AllMusic)

Tommy Sands born 27 August 1937

 

Tommy Sands (born Thomas Adrian Sands, 27 August 1937, Chicago, Illinois) is an American pop music singer and actor.

Tommy‘s mother was a singer who performed in Art Kassel's band. Growing up he enjoyed music, particularly country music. In 1944 his mother gave him a guitar for Christmas. They moved to Houston, and Tommy spent some time there as a disc jockey as early as age 12. In 1951 he cut his first record and by the following year he had attracted the attention of entrepreneur Colonel Tom Parker, who signed young Tommy to a contract with RCA records. For the next few years he recorded some songs that had little impact.

1957 was a breakthrough year for Tommy Sands. Early that year he was given the title role in a television play called The Singing Idol. He had what would prove to be his biggest hit ever with Teen-Age Crush from that show; it went to number two and made him a very popular figure.

 

In April, while still a teenager, he was featured on the television show This Is Your Life. He signed with Capitol and continued to record songs; his cover of Faron Young's 1953 country hit Goin' Steady began to climb the charts. Tommy Sands, star of The Singing Idol, had become a singing idol.

Meanwhile Colonel Parker had signed another singing sensation who had become prominent nationally in 1956, Elvis Presley. Comparisons between Presley and Sands were inevitable. Both had been managed by Parker, both burst on the scene in grand style, and both went to Hollywood to make movies. For Sands, his first film was a starring vehicle for him titled Sing Boy Sing. He had trained as an actor when he was in school, and did an admirable job in his first film. His recording of the song from that film by the same title would become his third and last top forty tune.

He began to concentrate more on films, appearing in Mardi Gras with Pat Boone and a forgettable film, Love In A Goldfish Bowl. In 1960 he starred in Disney's remake of the Victor Herbert operetta Babes In Toyland, along with popular singer/actress Annette Funicello, and he married pop-sensation-to-be Nancy Sinatra. Tommy also continued with his recording career. The release of "I'll Be Seeing You," marked a new musical direction for Sands. He cut two albums with Nelson Riddle and continued to release singles for a variety of labels, but none in the teen rock format that made him famous. Other film roles came along, including The Longest Day, Ensign Pulver and None But The Brave.

Tommy Sands and Nancy Sinatra were divorced in 1965 and her father, Frank Sinatra, was not inclined to help Sands with his singing career. Sands did another film, The Violent Ones and eventually went into semi-retirement, moving to Hawaii. He opened a nightclub and had a clothing business for a while. He also found time to appear in several episodes of the popular television program Hawaii Five-O.

In later years Tommy Sands made an appearance at a rock-and-roll festival in England in 1990 and ten years later he was featured in the television special Hollywood Rocks The Movies.

Tommy Sands' name does not come up often when there are discussions of the early days of rock-and-roll, and his old songs receive very little play time on oldies radio stations. But that does not diminish the fact that he did a serviceable job with his acting career, drew comparisons to his contemporary Elvis Presley, and was very popular and a prominent figure in the early days of rock-and-roll.  (info mainly from tsimon.com)