Some Velvet Morning
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Some Velvet Morning" is a psychedelic pop song written by Lee Hazlewood and originally recorded by Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in late 1967. It first appeared on Sinatra's album Movin' With Nancy, the soundtrack to her 1967 television special of the same name . The song has been covered many times since, almost always as a duet. Although "Some Velvet Morning" is one of the more famous duets Hazlewood and Sinatra recorded together, it is considered a departure from their usual fare, as it is decidedly less influenced by country & western music. The single peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1968.
As with many psychedelic songs, its overall meaning is somewhat obscure. The lyrics consist of the male part describing a mysterious, powerful woman named Phaedra, who educated the speaker in the ways of love. The male part alternates with the female part, who identifies herself as Phaedra and speaks over ethereal, twinkling music about beautiful nature imagery — "flowers growing on a hill / dragonflies and daffodils" — and about the secrets held by an unknown collective "we."
The song was featured in the 1967 TV special: Movin' With Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra, released to home video in 2000.
Selective list of recorded versions
- 1968 Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, US #26
- 1968 Gábor Szabó - guitar instrumental on Bacchanal
- 1969 Vanilla Fudge on Near the Beginning
- 1982 Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard, 12" single later issued on Honeymoon In Red
- 1986 Peter Zaremba's Love Delegation on Spread the Word
- 1993 Slowdive on Souvlaki
- 1995 Thin White Rope on Spoor
- 2001 My Dying Bride on Peaceville X & Meisterwerk 2
- 2002 Primal Scream and Kate Moss on Evil Heat. A different version was released as a single in 2003 and included on Primal Scream's compilation Dirty Hits
- 2002 The Webb Brothers on the Lee Hazlewood tribute album, Total Lee!
- 2002 Entombed on Sons Of Satan Praise The Lord
- 2004 Firewater on Songs We Should Have Written
- 2007 Lee Hazlewood & Phaedra Dawn Stewart (his granddaughter) on Cake or Death
- 2008 Amanda Brown and Glenn Richards on RocKwiz, Saturday, December 13, 2008
Other notes
- In November 2003 music critics working for the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph put the single at the top of a list of the 50 best ever recorded duets.
- The song has been played as bumper music many times when Art Bell hosts the weekend version of the radio show Coast to Coast AM.
- In Germany there is a radio show, which has its name after the song.
- A translated cover version in Hebrew was recorded by Rami Fortis and was featured on his 1988 album, Sipurim Mehakufsa (Tales from the Box)
