The 20th of February 1972
Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 20th,
announced on Tuesday the 22nd,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood
Did You Ever?
At No.49 on the The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart on the day I was born is Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood with “Did You Ever?”.
Another album which only managed to spend a few weeks on the Chart was this one.
“Did You Ever?” (in some territories, including their home turf of the United States, it was named ‘Nancy & Lee Again’) had entered the UK Chart on the 23rd of January 1972 at No.37.
The musical merging of Nancy and Lee…
…went back to the mid-1960’s.
Back then, Nancy’s father Frank had asked his good friend, singer / songwriter and producer Lee Hazlewood, to assist in Nancy’s struggling career.
Nancy had put herself in the public’s awareness for years.
Firstly guesting on her Dad’s TV show, around the age of 17.
It would be another 4 years…
…before she released her first single “Cuff Links and a Tie Clip”, although it didn’t manage to appear on the U.S. Billboard or U.K. charts.
Further Singles had some success…
…in Europe and Japan, but a big hit at home kept eluding her.
After several failed attempts, and now with the record company threatening to drop her if a sizable hit didn’t materialise soon, her father decided to step in, and brought Lee onboard to give Nancy something to prove her ability.
Not only did Lee change the way Nancy sang, lowering the key to give her voice a more alluring tone, but also gave her a complete image overhaul.
By the end of the transformation, she’d gone from a typical girl-next-door type, to the look of an up-to-date sixties vixen.
Nowhere was this more evident than when she appeared in the promo film for her new song, written and composed by Lee, entitled “These Boots Are Made For Walking”.
The transformation not only worked, it became iconic.
The song ultimately won a gold record for selling over a million, and getting 3 Grammy nominations to boot (pun intended).
It also hit No.1 over here in the U.K.
More big singles followed,..
…including a follow up called “How Does That Grab You Darlin’”, very similar in feel to the previous hit, and “Sugar Town”.
Her next U.K. No.1, in April 1967, would be a duet with her father, which would go down as another all-time classic.
“Somethin’ Stupid”.
Barely 3 months later,..
…Nancy was back in the U.K. Charts again. This time with the theme from the latest ‘James Bond’ movie “You Only Live Twice”.
The composer John Barry offered a slightly different arrangement for the single, than the score played in the title sequence, that everybody heard at the cinema.
This version had less emphasis on strings, and focused more weight on a bigger drum sound, double tracking on the vocals, added horns and more prominent backing singers, and now included a more distinguished fuzz guitar, which now gave the track a less subtle, but more bombastic feel.
In the U.K.. the single would just fall shy of the Top 10, and reach No.11 in July.
The B-side of the single…
…would be one of Nancy and Lee’s first collaborations as a singing duo.
Just as Miss Sinatra and Mr. Hazlewood were embarking on their new project as a duo,..
…Nancy would undertake one other project, and star alongside Elvis Presley in the 1968 feature film “Speedway”.
Lee had initially studied for a medical degree,..
…before he flew off with the U.S. Army to assist in the Korean War.
Upon his return to the United States in 1953, he ditched his previous career outlook, and instead took up a new career, working in radio as a disc jockey It was also during this time that he began songwriting.
It wasn’t that much longer before he took up producing as well, and eventually set up his own record label.
His first single as songwriter and producer was called “The Fool” which became a hit in the United States for rockabilly singer Sanford Clark.
From there,..
…he struck up a partnership with cutting edge guitarist Duane Eddy, writing and producing many of his instrumentals well into the 1960’s, including “Rebel Rouser”, which became a Top 20 hit in the U.K. in 1958.
It wouldn’t be long…
…after Lee had produced the first few of Nancy’s million sellers, that the two of them teamed up to record together.
Some, like on Nancy’s “You Only Live Twice” single, would end up on the B-side.
And some would become a success themselves.
One such song, which did a bit of both, was their version of “Summer Wine”.
The next obvious step,..
…seemed to be to produce an album of their songs together.
“Nancy & Lee” was warmly welcomed by those who had enjoyed their collaborations so far and included all their releases up to that point, plus a few new tracks.
One popular song was “Some Velvet Morning”, which became an unusual hit in the United States. maybe in part because it was a departure of the sound the two had made up until then, another factor may have been the vagueness in the lyric which could be opened up to any number of interpretations.
In the U.K.,.
…the album peaked at No.17, and stayed in the chart for 13 weeks during the summer of 1968.
The single released from the album (which only stayed in the chart for 1 week the previous November) was “Lady Bird”.
For this follow-up collection of songs,..
…going into the new decade, Nancy had now moved record labels, from her Dad’s ‘Reprise’, to the same label as Elvis, ‘RCA’.
A lead single, “Did You Ever?” became a big hit in the autumn of 1971 here in the U.K., reaching No.2, and was only kept off the top spot by “Hey Girl, Don’t Bother Me” by The Tams.
It may have been because of the success of the single “Did You Ever ?”, that the label decided to give this album the same title over here in the U.K. , and put the track first in the album’s sequence.
After the new LP’s entrance…
…into the U.K. Album Chart at the end of January, it would move up 6 places to No.31, before dropping 4 places to No.35 the following week, then leaving the Top 50 with a consecutive three week run after the 12th of February.
Two weeks later, it reappears here for this one final solitary week at No.49, before leaving the U.K. Chart for the final time after the 26th.
Side 1
Side 2
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