Nancy Sinatra: Trust Is the Bridge Between Contrasting Collaborators

        A discussion of Nick Cave’s creative process is incomplete without mentioning his longtime collaborator and fellow band member, Warren Ellis. As a multi-instrumentalist, Ellis contributes musical composition, while Cave writes lyrics. Together in the studio, they “intuitively” and “mindfully” improvise, observing the other’s creative choices, and then adapt and further develop a cohesive work. Cave describes his and Ellis’ ethic in these studio sessions as “following our hearts and understanding of each other.” Thus, their collaborative space—especially because it is a familiar one to both men, who have worked together on many projects—is full of trust and cooperation. Although they approach songwriting from these two directions and, per Cave, have contrasting personalities that occasionally conflict, these differences allow them to complement one another, bettering their art, as they each brave the “unsettling” endeavor of creating with another.

        Another musical duo that flourished across multiple works despite their differences is singer Nancy Sinatra and singer-songwriter and producer Lee Hazelwood. Throughout her decades-long career, Sinatra has collaborated with many other well-known artists, including her famous father on “Something Stupid,” but there has been no collaborator with whom she was more successful or in tune with than Hazelwood. He, sometimes alongside guitarist Billy Strange, would write and produce the music while Sinatra sang and experimented with lyrics, vocal pitch, and phrasing. They have recorded multiple albums and duets together, and Hazelwood has written many songs that Sinatra later recorded, the most famous of which being “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” a 1960s classic.

        Sinatra and Hazelwood’s pairing initially seemed ill-matched. Music historian Harvey Kubernik and others have commented on their unexpected artistic cohesion: “Indeed, no one could have predicted that these two contrasting voices (and personalities) would work together quite so well. Praising the duo’s ‘sonic alchemy,’ Hunter Lea writes, ‘Rarely in music has there been such an unlikely collaboration: Nancy, the sassy and sweet songstress contrasted by Lee, the gruff, psychedelic cowboy. A harmonic partnership that defies conventional logic yet yields so much beauty’” (Kubernik 2022). In Sinatra’s own words, she and Hazelwood acknowledged their differences. About their collaboration, she said, “We used to call it Beauty and the Beast! Voices with no blend,” and as to their personal dynamic, that it was “sort of a love/hate relationship” (Kubernik 2022). Critics have noted that the intensity of their chemistry is audible in their duets and distinguishes their albums as unique and authentic. Sinatra admits this too: “[...] we did have a chemistry and we capitalized on it. I trusted him.” By collaborating with someone with ideas and talents different from hers in a relationship of reciprocal trust, Sinatra, like Cave, found great success as a musical artist.