Happy Birthday, Nancy Sinatra!

Today the gal with the boots celebrates her birthday. Nancy Sinatra was the first born of Frank's three kids and was very much Daddy's little girl. Though she may not have had the vocal range of her Dad, nor his singing career longevity, Nancy Sinatra was a hugely popular and iconic singer of the swingin' 60's. Interestingly, though she was ostensibly of the rock 'n' roll generation of that era, her singing style still owed a lot to the more traditional crooning style of her father and his contemporaries. She had a string of hits as both a solo artist as well as a number of great duets alongside Lee Hazlewood, the singer/record producer who also wrote most of her songs, including her famous, These Boots Are Made For Walkin'.

I really like Nancy Sinatra's singing style. Although her vocal range was somewhat limited, there was always a warmth and sincerity in her delivery. Nancy had a bit of a revival a few years ago when her rendition of Bang Bang (previously a hit for Cher) was picked up to be used in the opening titles of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume One, setting the melancholy tone for the bride left for dead played by Uma Thurman. Here is Nancy singing Bang Bang when she guested on her Dad's 1966 TV special, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music - Part II. I watched this appearance to draw the crazy frilled dress, though my sketch of her face was done from her own 1967 TV special, Movin' With Nancy, which is also available on DVD. The second YouTube clip is a segment from that special, featuring Nancy and Lee Hazlewood singing Jackson, a song made popular by Johnny Cash and June Carter.

Happy Birthday, Trini Lopez!

As should be quite apparent here by now, The Cartoon Cave is mostly about nostalgia: my personal recollections of a better era of entertainment. Back in the 1960s, Trini Lopez was one of the entertainers that helped define that era for me. Although my Dad was the one who usually had the records spinning on the family hi-fi, once in awhile my Mom would take control of it and play some of her favourites. I guess she may have liked the latin sound, as she liked to play Trini Lopez and also Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Anyway, I grew up enjoying that sound too, and I've since acquired those old LPs that I wouldn't let her toss out a few years ago. Mom's happy with CDs and doesn't share my sentimental value of dusty old records!

Trini Lopez had a fun, joyous sound to his music. Sometimes it was uptempo like his rendition of "If I Had a Hammer" or "Lemon Tree". But he could also sing slower tender ballads as well. He recorded on the Reprise Records label created by Frank Sinatra in the 60s. In addition to his singing career, Trini did a bit of acting here and there, including an appearance as himself performing onstage at a nightclub in the Sinatra film, Marriage on the Rocks.

Anyway, over on the ISCA (International Society of Caricature Artists), they're continuing with a forum celebrating a different notable personality's birthday each day. I wish I could keep up with it more regularly than I do, but I decided to do one of Trini, since the mention of his name conjured up such warm feelings of nostalgia of my childhood years. I sketched his face from an old episode of the cop show, Adam-12, in which he had guest-starred. Then I looked at a video posted on YouTube to see him in concert mode to draw his shirt and jacket.

While perusing YouTube, I also came across this neat clip where Trini Lopez appears in a duet with one of my favourite girl singers, warm and lovely Vikki Carr (who I am determined to draw some time for my blog!) I hope this brings back some happy memories for you readers out there of my generation!