A pop/rock performer who leaned very heavily toward the pop side of that designation, Frank Sinatra's daughter, Nancy, enjoyed a brief run of superstardom between 1966 and 1968. Not nearly the vocalist her father is, the family name didn't hurt her advances in the business, nor did the fact that she recorded for Frank's label, Reprise. Her first few singles met with little success, and Nancy was on the verge of being dropped when she hooked up with producer Lee Hazlewood and arranger Billy Strange. They urged her to lower her voice and toughen her delivery, and crafted material emphasizing growling bass lines and go-go tempos. One of their first efforts, the 1966 single "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," topped the charts, inaugurating a series of hits over the next couple years, the biggest of which were "Sugar Town," "Lightning's Girl," "Love Eyes," and her number one hit duet with her father, "Somethin' Stupid." No one could advance serious claims for Nancy as a significant artist, and her unabashedly pop output was certainly at odds with the innovations setting the worlds of rock and soul afire in the psychedelic era. But they were fun, and her best singles are good listening, capturing the most lightweight period charm of the Top 40 of her time.

Nancy's singles were as notable for their distinctive arrangements and the odd, brooding compositions of Lee Hazlewood, who wrote most of her hits. Specializing in oddly disquieting songs with a sort of modern Western theme, Hazlewood teamed up with Sinatra for a few duets that presented the chalk-and-cheese combination of Nancy's thin voice with Lee's gravelly, almost spoken delivery, which recalled an off-kilter Johnny Cash. The team actually managed a few hits, some of which, especially "Some Velvet Morning," rank as some of the most bizarre MOR Top 40 pop hits of all time. Nancy didn't enter the Top 40, with or without Hazlewood, after early 1968. Sundazed embarked upon an extensive Nancy Sinatra reissue series of her original albums. Sinatra returned to the studio in the early 2000s, and released a high-profile, eponymous album for Sanctuary that united her with admirers including Morrissey, Jon Spencer, Pete Yorn, and Caliexico.

Credit: mp3.com