Nancy Sinatra's singing career received a boost in 1966 when her father, Frank Sinatra, asked songwriter/producer/arranger Lee Hazlewood to help her out. Hazlewood, who had been making records for 10 years, notably with Duane Eddy, gave her "
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," which became a huge hit.
The Sinatra/Hazlewood team spun out a series of hits, including the #1 single with her father, "
Somethin' Stupid." They also recorded a series of duets together, including this song.
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood recorded "Some Velvet Morning" for Sinatra's album Movin' with Nancy, the soundtrack to her 1967 television special of the same name. Released as a single in December 1967, it peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1968. The song later appeared on the duo's 1968 collaborative album, Nancy & Lee.
This was atypical of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's duets, which were influenced by country and folk music. With its psychedelic melody and spacey sexual lyrics, it was a departure from their usual fare.
Hazlewood admitted he does not know what the lyrics mean but was inspired by the Greek mythological character, Phaedra. "There was only about seven lines about Phaedra,"
he said. "She had a sad middle, a sad end, and by the time she was 17 she was gone. She was a sad-assed broad, the saddest of all Greek goddesses. So bless her heart, she deserves some notoriety, so I'll put her in a song."
Some velvet morning when I'm straight
I'm gonna open up your gate
And maybe tell you 'bout PhaedraIn Greek mythology, Phaedra was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë of Crete, who fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. When Hippolytus rejected Phaedra, she lied to her husband that he tried to rape her, resulting in his death. She subsequently killed herself in remorse.
According to the liner notes, "some velvet morning" means nothing in particular. They stated: "The words 'Velvet' and 'Morning' rhyme in our heads."
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood recorded the song at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles during a three-hour session. Billy Strange arranged the lush strings and conducted the orchestra. Overdubbing wasn't used; instead, the duo sung the entire song live with the band and the full orchestra.
"Some Velvet Morning" earned the top spot on British newspaper The Daily Telegraph's list of the "50 Best Duets Ever. Nancy Sinatra told Uncut magazine in 2021, "Even though it was years and years later, it's still nice to be appreciated. And for that record especially nobody's figured that song out yet. And I still don't know what it means."
Artists that have covered the song include:
Vanilla Fudge on their 1969 album Near the Beginning.
Post-punk artist Lydia Lunch and The Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard on their 1982 collaborative album, Honeymoon In Red.
Slowdive on the US release of their 1993 album Souvlaki.
Primal Scream and Kate Moss on the Scottish band's 2002 album, Evil Heat. A separate single version peaked at #44 in the UK the following year.
The North London rock band Some Velvet Morning took their name from this song.
Part of the public's fascination with the duo's sultry collaborations was their age difference, with Hazlewood being 11 years older than Sinatra. "Lee always had some kind of underlying message in his songs," Sinatra told MOJO in 1999. "I guess it's partly what he used to call 'beauty and the beast,' the young girl and the older guy - that fantasy. We didn't have an affair, we didn't have a physical relationship and yet we created something that indicated that we did and I guess people thought that was interesting because we were so different in age."
Although they shared the same age disparity and penchant for producing hit duets, Hazlewood and Sinatra were no Sonny and Cher - and that's exactly what added to their appeal, according to Hazlewood. "If Nancy and I had ever had the Sonny and Cher thing going, I doubt it would have been as successful," he told MOJO. "When Nancy did her songs she was a ballsy, s--t-kickin' broad. When we did our songs together, we were some space-o unit, or an old man foolin' with a young girl, or whatever it was. That would never have had the niceness of 'And the beat goes on.'
Sonny and Cher were very vanilla, whereas our songs were not necessarily very nice. Most of our duets are not double meaning, they're kinda triple meaning. If you're some Santa Monica doper sitting on the street, then it's a dope song. If you're just some little innocent girl sitting in Nebraska, it's just a song. And then if you're really a Nancy and Lee fan, it means a lot of other things too. It's everything combined."
Hazlewood actually wrote this surreal slice of psychedelic pop out of spite. He told Record Collector in 1999: "I had problems with people telling me 'I really like the song you wrote Lee, you can really dance to it.' I don't like people dancing to my music. I was being very contrary. The next thing I sat down to write happened to be that song and I go - 'Dance to this, sons of bitches.'"
This was used in these TV shows:
Runaways ("Gimme Shelter" - 2018)
Channel Zero ("Insidious Onset" - 2018)
Mr. Robot ("eps1.5_br4ve-trave1er.asf" - 2015)
And in these movies:
East Of Sweden (2018)
Not Fade Away (2012)
Morvern Callar (2002)
Snakeskin (2001)
