1950s and 1960s Sinatra began to study music, dancing, and voice at
UCLA in the late 1950s, but she dropped out after one year. She made her professional debut on her father's television show
The Frank Sinatra Show in November 1957 and then appeared on his 1960 television special
The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis, which celebrated the return of
Elvis Presley from Europe following his discharge from military service. Nancy was sent to the airport on behalf of her father to welcome Presley when his plane landed. On the special, Sinatra and her father danced and sang a duet, "
You Make Me Feel So Young/Old". That same year, she began a five-year marriage to
Tommy Sands. Sinatra was signed to her father's label,
Reprise Records, in 1961. Her first single, "Cuff Links and a Tie Clip", went largely unnoticed. Her subsequent singles, though, charted in Europe and Japan. By 1965, without a hit in the United States, she was on the verge of being dropped by the label. Her singing career received a boost with the help of songwriter/producer/arranger
Lee Hazlewood, who had been making records for 10 years, notably with
Duane Eddy. Hazlewood had Sinatra sing in a lower key and crafted songs for her. Bolstered by an image overhaulincluding bleached-blond hair, frosted lips, heavy eye makeup, and
Carnaby Street fashionsSinatra made her mark on the American (and British) music scene in early 1966 with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", its title inspired by a line from
Robert Aldrich's 1963 Western comedy
4 for Texas, starring
Dean Martin and her father. One of her many hits written by Hazlewood, it received three
Grammy Award nominations at the
9th Annual Grammy Awards, including two for Sinatra and one for arranger
Billy Strange. It sold more than one million copies and was awarded a
gold disc. A TV promotional clip featured Sinatra in high boots, accompanied by colorfully dressed
go-go dancers, to iconic
Swinging Sixties effect. A run of chart singles followed, including two 1966 US Top Ten hits: "
How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" (number seven) and "
Sugar Town" (number five), which became Sinatra's second million-seller. Frank and Nancy became the only father-daughter duo to top the Hot 100, but DJs dubbed the track "the incest song" because it was sung as if by two lovers. The British
broadsheet The Daily Telegraph placed "Some Velvet Morning" atop its 2003 list of the Top 50 Best Duets Ever ("Somethin' Stupid" ranked no. 27.) The song appeared on the duo's 1968 album
Nancy & Lee, about which
National Public Radio commented in 2017, "... its sly, sultry movements both are a gem of traditional '60s pop and an inversion of traditional conceptions of romance." Sinatra recorded the
theme song for the
James Bond film
You Only Live Twice in 1967. In the liner notes of the CD reissue of her 1966 album
Nancy In London, Sinatra states that she was "scared to death" of recording the song, and asked the songwriters
Leslie Bricusse and
John Barry: "Are you sure you don't want
Shirley Bassey?" The two versions of the Bond theme include the lushly orchestrated track featured during the opening and closing credits of the film, and the more guitar-heavy version that appeared on the
double A-sided single with "Jackson", though the Bond theme stalled at number 44 on the
Billboard Hot 100. "Jackson"/"You Only Live Twice" was even more successful in the UK, reaching number 11 on the singles chart during a 19-week chart run (in the Top 50); it ranked 70th on the year-end chart. Sinatra traveled to
Vietnam to perform for US troops in 1966 and 1967.
Films and television Sinatra played a secretary in the 1963 ''
Burke's Law episode "Who Killed Wade Walker?". She starred in three beach party films: For Those Who Think Young (1964), Get Yourself a College Girl (1964), and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), performing songs in the latter film. After securing the role that eventually went to Linda Evans in Beach Blanket Bingo'', she withdrew because the film's character is kidnappeda parallel she found too close to actual events when her brother
Frank Sinatra Jr. was
kidnapped in December 1963. Sinatra appeared as a guest with
Woody Allen on the game show
Password in 1965. She appeared as herself in
The Oscar (1966) and also starred in
The Last of the Secret Agents?, in which she sang the title song, and
The Wild Angels the same year. She appeared in the 1968 Elvis Presley musical comedy
Speedway, her final film. on
The Hollywood Palace in 1968 Sinatra appeared on
The Virginian,
The Ed Sullivan Show,
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., ''
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and The Kraft Music Hall'', hosted by
Sandler & Young. She also appeared in her father's 1966 special
A Man and His Music – Part II and a 1967 Christmas-themed episode of
The Dean Martin Show, which featured the Sinatra and Martin families.
NBC aired Sinatra's own special, ''
Movin' with Nancy, in 1967. It featured Lee Hazlewood, her father and his Rat Pack pals Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., her brother Frank Sinatra Jr., and West Side Story dancer David Winters, who choreographed the show. Jack Haley Jr. directed and produced the special, for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Music or Variety at the 20th Primetime Emmy Awards. During the special, Sinatra shared a kiss with Davis Jr., about which she has stated, "The kiss [was] one of the first interracial kisses seen on television and it caused some controversy then, and now. [But] contrary to some inaccurate online reports, the kiss was unplanned and spontaneous." Winters was nominated for an Emmy in the Special Classification of Individual Achievements category for his choreography, but lost to co-winners The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Jackie Gleason Show. Movin' With Nancy'' was sponsored by
RC Cola.
1970s and 1980s Sinatra remained with Reprise until 1970. In 1971, she signed with
RCA Records, resulting in three albums:
Nancy & Lee – Again (1971),
Woman (1972), and a compilation of some of her Reprise recordings called
This Is Nancy Sinatra (1973). She released the non-LP single "
Sugar Me"
b/w "
Ain't No Sunshine" in 1973. "Sugar Me" was written by
Lynsey De Paul and
Barry Blue, and with other covers of works by early-'70s popular songwriters, resurfaced on the 1998 album
How Does It Feel? In 1971, Sinatra and Hazlewood's duet "Did You Ever?" reached number two in the UK In 1972, they performed for a Swedish documentary,
Nancy and Lee in Las Vegas, which chronicled their
Las Vegas concerts at the
Riviera Hotel and Casino and featured solo numbers and duets from concerts, behind-the-scenes footage, and scenes of Sinatra's mother and her husband, Hugh Lambert. The film did not appear until 1975. By 1975, Sinatra was releasing singles on the
Private Stock Records label. Among them were "Kinky Love", "Annabell of Mobile", "It's for My Dad", and "
Indian Summer" (with Hazlewood). "Kinky Love" was banned by some radio stations for its suggestive lyrics. It appeared on
Sheet Music: A Collection of Her Favorite Love Songs in 1998, and
Pale Saints covered the song in 1991. By the mid-1970s, Sinatra had slowed her musical activity and ceased acting to concentrate on her family. She returned to the studio in 1981 to record a country album with
Mel Tillis called
Mel & Nancy. Two of their songs made the
Billboard country chart: "Texas Cowboy Night" (number 23) and "Play Me or Trade Me" (number 43). In 1985, Sinatra wrote the book
Frank Sinatra, My Father.
1990s–present At 54, Sinatra posed for
Playboy in the May 1995 issue and made appearances on TV shows to promote her album
One More Time. The magazine appearance caused some controversy. On the talk-show circuit, she said that her father was proud of the photos. Sinatra told
Jay Leno on a 1995
Tonight Show that her daughters gave their approval, but her mother said that she should ask her father before committing to the project. Sinatra said that when she told her father what
Playboy would be paying her, he said, "Double it". In 1995, Nancy wrote the book
Frank Sinatra, An American Legend. This was followed by an updated version in 1998 following Frank's death. Taking her father's advice to own her
masters, Sinatra owns or holds an interest in most of her material, including videos.
EMI released
The Essential Nancy Sinatra, a UK-only
greatest-hits compilation featuring the previously unreleased track, "Machine Gun Kelly", in 2006. The album was Sinatra's first to make the UK charts (number 73) since 1971's
Did You Ever? reached number 31. Sinatra recorded "Another Gay Sunshine Day" for
Another Gay Movie in 2006. Sinatra received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 11, 2006. A Golden Palm Star on the
Palm Springs, California,
Walk of Stars was dedicated to her in 2002. Sinatra appeared as herself on one of the final episodes ("
Chasing It") of the
HBO mob drama
The Sopranos. Her brother Frank Jr. had previously appeared in the 2000 episode "
The Happy Wanderer". Sinatra and
Anoushka Shankar recorded a 2007
public-service announcement for Deejay Ra's Hip-Hop Literacy campaign, encouraging reading of music and film-related books and screenplays. Sinatra's digital-only album
Cherry Smiles: The Rare Singles, featuring previously unreleased tracks and songs only available as singles, was released in 2009. She released the 2013 digital-only album
Shifting Gears, featuring 15 previously unreleased tracks, including a rendition of
Neil Diamond's "
Holly Holy". The
orchestra tracks were recorded in the 1970s while Sinatra was touring with a 40-piece orchestra, and her vocal tracks were recorded within 10 years of the release of the collection. Sinatra's 1967 hit duet with Lee Hazlewood, "
Summer Wine", was featured in retail apparel giant
H&M's "The Summer Shop 2017" ad campaign. In October 2020, Sinatra and
Light in the Attic Records announced plans to release the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series. The first release was a
Record Store Day Black Friday exclusive 7-inch vinyl single featuring two Sinatra/Hazlewood duets, "
Some Velvet Morning" and "
Tired of Waiting for You". A new 23-track compilation, ''Start Walkin' 1965–1976'', followed in February 2021. Sinatra's debut album,
Boots, was reissued on vinyl, picture disc, compact disc, 4-track, 8-track, and digital by Light In The Attic Records on September 17, 2021. The second wave of the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series kicked off on September 29, 2023 with the digital release of a new 25-song compilation ''Keep Walkin': Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978.'' Its physical release followed on October 20, 2023. Sinatra participated in her first
YouTube live chat on November 2, 2023. == Political views ==