Somethin 'stupid
Somethin 'Stupid is a pop song by Carson Parks , of 1967, as amended by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy to number-one hit in the US and in the UK was. A version by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman from 2001 was also very successful .
History of origin
Carson Parks was a member of The Greenwoods County Singers , where he met his future wife Gaile Foote. He wrote music and lyrics for Something Stupid in the fall of 1966 and recorded it with Foote for the joint duet album San Antonio Rose ( Kapp Records KS-3516). The release of the LP was originally planned for November 1966, but was then postponed to February 1967 because the concept was deemed unsuitable for the Christmas business. In addition to the LP, the recording was also released as a single in February 1967 (Kapp 813).
Sinatra's cover version
Parks' manager Wally Brady played the duet recording by Carson & Gaile in late 1966 for Mo Ostin , Vice President of Reprise Records . At Brady's suggestion, Ostin forwarded a copy to Frank Sinatra , who immediately decided to release the piece as a duet with his daughter Nancy , who was also under contract with Reprise. After Frank Sinatra's producer Jimmy Bowen and Nancy Sinatra's producer Lee Hazlewood quickly came to an agreement, father and daughter played the song together on February 1, 1967 at the Western Recorders Studios in Hollywood . The arrangement was made by Billy Strange . This created an arrangement and tempo identical to the original, and a middle instrumental section was added. The cast was made up of parts of the Wrecking Crew such as Alvin Casey / Glen Campbell (guitar), Ralph Peña (bass), Carol Kaye ( electro bass ), Hal Blaine (drums) and Victor Feldman (percussion). The recording was made on a new eight-track recorder with Eddie Bracken as the sound engineer in just 4 takes and 35 minutes of recording time.
The single Somethin 'Stupid / I Will Wait for You (Reprise 0561) appeared in February 1967, in August 1967 also on Frank Sinatra's album The World We Knew and on Nancy Sinatra's album Sugar . Mo Ostin's concerns that the song with its love text is not suitable as a duet between father and daughter turned out to be unfounded. In the USA, the recording hit the charts on March 18, 1967, where it stayed for a total of 13 weeks, and on April 15 it reached the top position for four weeks. In Great Britain the single was at the same time from March 23rd a total of 18 weeks in the hit parade and reached the top there on April 7th 1967 for two weeks. In other European countries and in South America , the inclusion in the charts was successful. In the German singles hit parade , the title reached number 4. In the same year, her recording was nominated for a Grammy in the “Record of the Year” category. Sales success also developed parallel to the hit parade. The single sold two million copies worldwide, including one million copies in the United States and 250,000 each in Great Britain and Germany.
The Sinatras are so far the only father-daughter couple to have achieved a number one hit in the USA. It was also the first time in 1967 that two artists who had already had at least one number one hit solo as a duo got this position. Frank and Nancy Sinatra could no longer build on this success with their later duets, only one of which made it into the top 30. During a joint tour in the spring of 1982, the two sang the piece several times as a duet on the concert stage.
More cover versions
There are at least 67 cover versions in total . In 1967 Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell produced another duet version for their LP United (August 1967), while Andy Williams released a solo version on the LP Love, Andy (November 1967). Sacha Distel & Johanna Shimkus duetted in 1967 with a French text by Maurice Tézé under the title Ces mots stupides . Under the title What can I do for that , Lilibert wrote a German text for Jack White & Brigitt Petry (1967), later adopted by Wyn & Andrea (1976). A reggae instrumental version is offered by Jackie Mittoo & Soul Vendors (1967).
In December 2001, Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman recorded the song as a duet for Williams' album Swing When You're Winning . This version reached number one again as a single in Great Britain (as a Christmas number one hit ) and the top 3 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Chord Overstreet & Heather Morris released Somethin 'Stupid on Glee (December 2012); In April 2013 it appeared on the album To Be Loved by Michael Bublé , who sang it in a duet with Reese Witherspoon .
Individual evidence
- ^ Fred Bronson, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits , 3rd Revised and Expanded Edition, New York City, New York: Billboard Publications, 1992, p. 222.
- ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 547.
- ↑ Stephen Nugent, Anne Fowler, Pete Fowler: Chart Log of American / British Top 20 Hits, 1955-1974 . In: Charlie Gillett, Simon Frith (Eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, p. 318.
- ↑ Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956–1980 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 189.
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 250.