Lee Hazlewood

Aug 7 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

HIS songs have been covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Courtney Love, but it is for a song about female footwear that Lee Hazlewood will always be remembered.

For Hazlewood, who died on Saturday, aged 78, from renal cancer, penned These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, the song that saved Nancy Sinatra’s career.

In 1965, with her famous father’s record label set to drop her, Hazlewood, already a successful record producer, was asked to help her out. It took some persuasion but eventually not only did he come up with the perfect tune but he completely re-invented her look and sound and These Boots . . . (which Hazlewood told Nancy to sing like a “16-year-old girl who s----s truck drivers”) sold more than 5m copies.

Born in Oklahoma, Hazlewood spent his childhood on the move as his oil driller father’s work took him across America’s deep South.

He was writing songs as a teenager but had enrolled in medical school when he was conscripted into the US Army. Upon his discharge in 1953, Hazlewood studied broadcasting in Los Angeles before landing a job on local radio in Arizona. There he began writing and producing singles for local artists, all the while experimenting with new recording techniques.

His third record, Sandford Clark’s The Fool, would later be re-sung by Elvis Presley but it was working with a teenage country guitarist Duane Eddy that Hazlewood made his first fortune.

Hazlewood arranged gigs for Eddy and helped him craft a signature sound resulting in the 1958 hit Rebel Rouser. Another 25 hits would follow on both sides of the Atlantic.

When he was asked to work with Nancy Sinatra, Hazlewood – unimpressed with the British invasion of music – was preparing to retire early. However, he worked on nine albums with her and the pair had to fend off suggestions theirs was more than just a professional partnership.

At the height of this success in 1970, Hazlewood fled the US for Sweden where he shunned all publicity, refused to allow re-releases of his records and built a successful television career while continuing to record music.

He was persuaded to reunite with Nancy for a tour in the mid-1990s. A number of his records were subsequently re-issued by Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley and in 1999 he released his first solo album in 20 years. His last album, Cake or Death, was released last December.

Married three times, Hazlewood is survived by his third wife, Jeanne Kelly, and three children.

Lee Hazlewood, songwriter; born July 9, 1929, died August 4, 2007