7 October 1971
Two total ledgebags at number one with ‘Did You Ever’ – not Linda Martin and Mick McCarthy with their unlikely 1991 duet, but Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood twenty years earlier. The Nancy n’ Lee songbook of sunkissed and sometimes sinister country-pop still sounds thrilling and sophisticated today. In particular, ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin” is one of our best chart-toppers of the ’60s, and ‘Summer Wine’ is so wonderful that not even a cover by The Corrs and Bono can ruin it, much.
Alas, this is the ’70s and ‘Did You Ever’ falls pitifully short of those glorious heights. For one thing, it wasn’t written by Hazlewood, and it had already been recorded by country duo Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery – neither of whom are known to have made ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin”, won Eurovision, or captained and managed Ireland. Yes, it fits their classic duet set-up of worldly-wise woman and out-of-his-depth guy, but that only underlines how the timid innuendo and dreary tune of ‘Did You Ever’ are just light-entertainment cabaret dross compared to the electricity and smarts we normally get from Nancy and Lee. Why them? Why us?
