These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

These Boots Are Made for Walkin' is a song written by Lee Hazlewood and released by Nancy Sinatra in 1966, which became a million seller.

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Frank Sinatra founded his own record company, Reprise Records, in January 1961, and in June of the same year his eldest daughter Nancy also received a record contract. She released a total of 15 singles over the next four years, but none of them made it into the charts. That changed when music producer Lee Hazlewood was brought in in October 1965. Nancy Sinatra's first recording under Hazlewood was the Hazlewood-penned So Long Babe, which charted at #86 after its release in October 1965 as Nancy Sinatra's first single.

Nancy Sinatra - These Boots are Made for Walkin'

Origin of the song

Lee Hazlewood then wrote the song These Boots Are Made for Walkin', which he wanted to sing himself. Nancy Sinatra, however, insisted on recording the track, even though Hazlewood was against producing this male song with her. He finally gave in to her insistence and let her have the title, "especially since the lyrics sound sexy sung by a woman and not pathetic like they do by a man," as Sinatra said in a 1971 interview. The song's lyrics are about the protagonist punishing her partner's infidelities, lies or other mistakes by stomping all over him with her boots.