Nancy Sinatra -- These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

 

It's always nice when contemporary pop culture brings back a tune or an entire genre from the past to the revelation and delight of a new generation. That was true for jump jive and swing back in the 1990s and of course, we had that "Plastic Love" thing in 2018. And then, several years ago, an episode of "Family Guy" introducing a new character, Lieutenant Commander Dan Quagmire, brought back an old classic to accompany the naval officer's fabulous moves down the stairs.

The thing is that for Japanese music show viewers, this same song had been used as the theme for TBS' often raucous (after all, it had the notorious Takaaki Ishibashi as a co-host) "Utaban"（うたばん）.

For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I give you Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'". Mind you, I was only a couple of months old when this song about kissing off a potentially former boyfriend was released in December 1965 so I very much doubt that I would have remembered hearing this when it came out. However, over the years, it did pop up on a number of variety shows and music programs on the major American networks since Sinatra's voice and that melody have instantly activated my memory engrams whenever I hear them. According to the Wikipedia entry for "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", songwriter Lee Hazlewood came up with the title after hearing a line ("They tell me them boots ain't built for walkin'.") by The Chairman of the Board himself in the comedy-western "4 For Texas" back in 1963. Yes, I'm talking about Hollywood legend Frank Sinatra, Nancy's father.

For a threatening kiss-off song, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" is pretty darn sultry and sexy as if Nancy were showing both the carrot and the stick at the same time. Wrong me, I'll mash you into paste, do me right, I'll give you all my lovin'. 

The song was a hit worldwide, reaching No. 1 in a number of nations including America, Denmark, Ireland and Argentina. In Canada, it hit No. 2. But even before all of the covers and its usage in "Family Guy" and "Utaban", I knew "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" was also notable for the fact that it had a promotional video which could be acknowledged as one of the first examples of a music video, and this news I got from "The All-Night Show", that local overnight show on the Toronto multicultural channel which was basically the video version of Japan's "Village Vanguard" curio shop.

For this ROY, let's go with what won some of the hardware at the 7th Japan Record Awards for 1965.

Grand Prize: Hibari Misora -- Yawara (柔）

Best New Artist: Mahina Stars & Miyoko Tashiro -- Aishite, Aishite, Aishichattanoyo (愛して愛して愛しちゃったのよ）

Best Composer: Hirooki Ogawa for Chieko Baisho -- Sayonara wa Dance no Ato ni （さよならはダンスの後に）