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Nancy Sinatra Reacts to Beyoncé’s ‘Ya Ya’ Sampling ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin”

The Cowboy Carter standout opens with a sample of Sinatra's 1966 classic.

Beyoncé

Beyoncé

Blair Caldwell

Nancy Sinatra has shared her thoughts on Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter track “Ya Ya” kicking off with a sample of her own work, the 1966 hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”

“Ya Ya,” the 20th song on Beyoncé’s new album, reimagines Sinatra’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 in its call-and-response intro. On Friday (March 29), Sinatra posted her reaction to hearing “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” on the set, which dropped that day.


“To have a little piece of one of my records in a @Beyonce song is very meaningful to me because I love her,” Sinatra wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “She represents what is great about today’s music and I’m delighted to be a tiny part of it.”

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She added, “This may be the best sample of ‘Boots’ yet! And the beat goes on… #Beyonce.”

“These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” was penned by Lee Hazlewood, and Sinatra’s recording was released in December 1965. By February 1966, it had reached the top of the Hot 100.

Beyoncé’s “Ya Ya” also interpolates The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange.” Cowboy Carter works in a number of memorable samples and interpolations, which Billboard has compiled.

“The joy of creating music is that there are no rules,” Beyoncé said in the press release about Cowboy Carter, a project which she’s said took over five years to complete. “The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones. I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune. I kept some songs raw and leaned into folk. All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps and even the sound of birds and chickens, the sounds of nature.”

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She also noted: “I think people are going to be surprised because I don’t think this music is what everyone expects, but it’s the best music I’ve ever made.”

Listen to Beyoncé’s new track “Ya Ya” and revisit Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” below. Billboard ranked all 27 of Cowboy Carter‘s tracks here.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.

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Born Ruffians
Courtesy Photo

Born Ruffians

FYI

New & Upcoming Canadian Albums: Broken Social Scene's 'You Forgot it In People' Gets Reimagined, Born Ruffians and Mother Mother Drop New Music

This week also brings news of new albums from veteran Canadian singer-songwriters Patrick Watson, Ron Sexsmith and Kathleen Edwards. Check out the full calendar of new releases here.

It's a nostalgic week for Canadian indie rock.

Today (June 6) sees the release of ANTHEMS: A Celebration of Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People – a front-to-back "reimagining" of Broken Social Scene's classic 2003 album. The album includes covers of every song by artists and mbands including Maggie Rogers and Sylvan Esso, Toro y Moi, The Weather Station, serpentwithfeet and more. The album coincides with the streaming premiere of the Broken Social Scene documentary It’s All Gonna Breakon Crave.

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