You Only Live Twice. Nancy Sinatra and Billy Strange in Stereo
ppw3o6r
Great BritainPosts: 2,296MI6 Agent
I love the Vick Flick style twang in this version and yes I know, that is the Maestro himself John Barry with Ms Sinatra.
Comments
This vid is well worth a watch, an exploration of the multitrack recording of the song:
Thanks for posting. This version definitely rocks a bit. I will say, the film version suits Nancy Sinatra's voice more. This arrangement to my ears would have worked better with a stronger vocal more befitting a Tom Jones. The stories I have read regarding how much of a struggle at least the film version of the song was for Nancy Sinatra are interesting. Cubby reportedly wanted Frank Sinatra but he wasn't interested and recommended Nancy and the rest is history....which begs the question, did Barry write the song with Frank in mind?
Well Julie Rogers sang the first, abandoned, YOLT song, so I guess Barry and Bricusse were always looking along the lines of a more delicate feel on it, so my guess they wouldn't have had Frank's voice in mind. Apparently the Broccolis and Sinatras were family friends and Cubby had known Nancy all her life, so it seems like she was his idea. They did want Frank for Moonraker I think, but I guess he wasn't interested.
As you can see in that twitter video above, the single version had her voice double-tracked with backing from The Blossoms, whereas the film version is single tracked. It's really interesting to watch and see the components of the song.