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The next installment in Light in the Attic’s ongoing Nancy Sinatra Archival Series is set for release on May 20: an expanded edition of 1968’s Nancy and Lee, the singer’s first full-length duet album with maverick singer-songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood.  Nancy and Lee will be reissued on CD as well as digitally, vinyl (with various color exclusives), cassette, and eight-track.

1965’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” produced and written by Hazlewood, launched Sinatra’s musical career into the stratosphere.  In a relationship similar to Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach and Hal David, or Petula Clark and Tony Hatch, Hazlewood served as Sinatra’s primary writer-producer, helming such hits as “How Does That Grab You, Darlin’?,” “Friday’s Child,” “Sugar Town,” and Nancy’s chart-topping duet with her dad Frank, “Somethin’ Stupid” (the latter of which was written by C. Carson Parks and co-produced by Jimmy Bowen).  In 1966, the haunting Nancy and Lee duet “Summer Wine” was released on 45 by Reprise Records, followed in 1967 by their rip-roaring take on “Jackson” and the psych-rock classic “Some Velvet Morning.”

Nancy and Lee, the first of three collaborative albums by the duo through 2004, would feature “Summer Wine,” “Jackson,” “Some Velvet Morning,” “Sand,” and “Lady Bird” as well as choice covers including Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Phil Spector’s “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” Billy Vera and Chip Taylor’s “Storybook Children,” Curly Putman and Billy Sherrill’s “Elusive Dreams,” and Tom T. Hall’s “Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman.”  Nancy and Lee’s easy rapport, combined with the top-drawer songwriting and production, and pitch-perfect arrangements by Billy Strange played by Los Angeles’ Wrecking Crew, made their debut LP into an instant success, peaking within the top 15 of the Billboard 200 in the U.S. and also scoring heavily in Europe (where Hazlewood would eventually relocate).

Shockingly, Nancy and Lee has never received a proper CD release in its original album sequence; a 1996 German issue came close but added Bobby Braddock’s “Did You Ever” from 1971’s Nancy and Lee Again in the middle of the album.  (That release echoed the sequence of Rhino’s 1989 Fairy Tales and Fantasies: The Best of Nancy and Lee which included four tracks in total from Nancy and Lee Again.)  LITA’s reissue preserves the original 11-song sequence and adds their originally-unreleased duets of The Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting for You” (which premiered on Nancy’s 1998 Sheet Music collection) and Mickey and Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange” (which debuted the following year on another compilation, You Go-Go Girl!) from Nancy and Lee’s sessions of January 24 and 25, 1968.

As with past reissues in the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series, the artist is involved with the release.  The CD’s 28-page booklet (20 pages in the LP) features an interview between Nancy and Hunter Lea and includes photos from her archive.  Audio has been remastered by John Baldwin from the original analog tapes.

Both of Nancy and Lee’s follow-up albums are similarly worthy of reissue (with Nancy and Lee Again also never having appeared on CD); perhaps this release augurs for those eventual entries in the series.  Nancy and Lee is available May 20 from Light in the Attic, and the title is currently on sale directly from the label in all formats including CD, digital, cassette, eight-track, and black, Psychedelic “Sand” Wax, and “Sundown, Sundown” Metallic Gold and Clear Wax vinyl pressings.  Additional colored vinyl pressings are available from Rough Trade (U.K.) and Collectors’ Choice Music (U.S.).  T-shirts, autographed prints, and more are also available from Nancy’s Bootique.  You’ll find pre-order links and the track listing below!

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Nancy and Lee (Reprise Records RS 6273, 1968 – reissued Light in the Attic, 2022)

All Formats: Nancy’s Bootique
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Gold Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
“Coke Bottle” Clear Vinyl (limited to 500 units): Rough Trade U.K.
“Lady Bird Opaque” Yellow Vinyl: Collectors’ Choice Music
“Gold Hi-Melt with Red” Vinyl (limited to 500 units): Vinyl Me, Please
Cassette: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

1. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling
2. Elusive Dreams
3. Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman
4. Summer Wine
5. Storybook Children
6. Sundown, Sundown
7. Jackson
8. Some Velvet Morning
9. Sand
10. Lady Bird
11. I’ve Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up to Me)
12. Tired Of Waiting for You (originally released on Sheet Music, DCC DZS-160, 1998)
13. Love Is Strange (originally released on You Go-Go Girl!, Varese Sarabande 302 066 059 2, 1999)