Why was "Something Stupid" by Frank and Nancy Sinatra a number one hit in the USA?

"Something Stupid" by Frank and Nancy Sinatra just popped up on my iPod, and it got me to thinking that it has to be one of the oddest number one hits of the post-Beatles, pre-seventies era (that magic time known as 1964-1969).

Why did this song get to number one? Frank hadn't had a hit in years. Nancy was kind of popular (I almost said hot but that could be taken two ways, lol) at the time, but still....this sounds nothing like anything else at the time. It's not as "old timey" sounding as Winchester Cathedral, and not as polarizing as Ballad of the Green Berets. It's not even a very good song, but that's just my opinion....

Was there an "outside" reason this became so popular? Use in a movie or tv show or tv special? Older people finally finding a song they could purchase during that time period? Just luck?

 

Novelty, mostly. Father/daughter duets were unusual and a love song from family members who weren't wife/husband was a little bent. Frank had a nice hit just the year before with That's Life.

 

Good question.
If this thread gets removed for an inexplicable reason I believe we'll have our answer

 

I liked it when it came out, I was a kid. Still like it.

 

Why the surprise? Both Nancy (These Boots were made for walkin') and Frank (Strangers in the Night) had #1 hits the year before. Nancy was certainly getting much attention as being the progeny of such a legendary singer and getting hit songs, Frank had a comeback album and hits. Combining the two together surely must have garnered a lot of attention, kind of bridging the generation gap between the two performers fans. It was such a mainstream song, that appealed to top 40 and AC stations.

 

Because it was by the greatest pop singer of his time and his daughter. People like that type of thing.

Wait till Billy Ray duets with Miley and see.

 

Steve, PM sent...

 

It was a UK number one, too.

1967 was a strange year, chartwise. We might associate it with psychedelia now but the charts in both countries showed some evidence of a backlash against 'weirdness'. In Britain, this was typified by Englebert Humperdinck keeping the most innovative Beatles single yet issued off the top spot with an old country ballad. Petula Clark also topped the charts with 'This Is My Song'; and in the autumn, Long John Baldry had his only chart-topper with the MOR (and atpyical) 'Let The Heartaches Begin.' And then there were the Tremeloes with 'Silence Is Golden' (a Four Seasons b-side from the early part of the decade re-jigged). Such 'straight' names as Harry Secombe and Vince Hillalso had big hits.

I'm more familiar with the UK charts of that year than the American ones but I don't think the story was all that different over the Atlantic. 'Incense & Peppermints' by the Strawberry Alarm Clock stands out somewhwat, doesn't it?

 

D'oh~! How could I have forgetten that Frank had a hit the year before with Strangers in the Night?

 

I'm sure it'll be just as charming...

 

Frank and Nancy were both doing well (as mentioned). Let's not forget Lee Hazlewood produced this and there was plenty of Nancy stuff coming out with his touch (Nancy and Lee, Nancy and Dean, solo, etc.). She was on everyone's mind. Then she does a duet with Papa Sinatra? I'd buy it. I also want to throw out that Papa Sinatra's "The World We Knew" is a great song from the same album and the mono is the best way to hear Billy Strange's fuzz.

 

Did the TV special come out after this? There's a soundtrack to it as well. I think this was on it. I know "Some Velvet Morning" is, so I assume it wasn't until later 1967 or early 1968.

 

Well we've had Michael Buble with Reese Witherspoon; The Mavericks & Trisha Yearwood; and this 2001 Christmas UK #1 single:


Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman - Somethin' Stupid

 

Why was the song a #1 hit? It's a great song, that's why.

 

Word in the 'hood is it was because many, many people bought a copy of the recording. But you didn't hear it from me.

 

But are any of those father-daughter teams? If so, I wasn't aware of it.

 

It was a great record...and it still sounds good today.

 

The time, the novelty, the artist. I personally think its a waste of digital space, etc. so obviously not one I care for but it is well crafted.

 

Apologies. I jumped into the gist of the thread, rather than directly address your point.

You certainly have a case, because how else could this dreadful version of this song make UK #1 in 2004. It certainly was not because it was a good record.


Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne - Changes (2004)

The original Black Sabbath 1972 recording was not too bad though.

 

I'm surprised that hasn't happened already.

 

Listening to this song recently, I was struck by how it's basically a Frank track with Nancy talking the lines along with him. I can remember at the time it was popular thinking it was an odd song to chart on pop stations. Number one for four weeks in '67, it kept A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You by The Monkees from reaching the top position that April.
I could never get past the fact that it was a father and daughter singing a melancholy love song to each other. I realize now that they weren't supposed to be singing to each other but at the time, it seemed kinda creepy. I love Frank and Nancy had some singles that were ok given her limited range but in retrospect, Somethin' Stupid feels like a wet blanket on the pop charts that April. I apologize to those who love the song but every man is entitled to an opinion.

Here's the Billboard Top Ten for April 15. 1967 to illustrate my point:

1. Somethin' Stupid - Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra
2. Happy Together - The Turtles
3. This Is My Song - Petula Clark
4. Bernadette - Four Tops
5. A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You - The Monkees
6. Western Union - The Five Americans
7. I Think We're Alone Now - Tommy James & The Shondells
8. Dedicated To The One I Love - The Mamas & The Papas
9. I Never Loved A Man (The Way That I Love You) - Aretha Franklin
10. Jimmy Mack - Martha & The Vaandellas

 

C. Carson Parks and wife Gaile Foote, recording as "Carson and Gaile" on Kapp Records:

 

And Carson Parks is/was(?) Van Dyke Parks' brother. They sang together in the Greenwood Country Singers (at least one album on Kapp Records) a couple of years before this song hit.

I never knew he had recorded his own version of it. Not a great song. I always thought someone thought it would be great if Frank and Nancy recorded a duet. and they chose the song because it wouldn't tax Nancy's limited range too much.

 

Written by Mr. Parks, who is Van Dykes' older brother I believe.

I remember the single in its time--quite catchy, something most people would not change the station about. Lot of revisionist b.s. later about it being widely mocked in its day as the 'incest song' etc. In was a deserved hit back in the more sensible days before media saturation made a lot of people take every recording by every artist as a Personal Statement. "Something Stupid" is a character song (like the vast majority of songs). Part of Sinatra's GENIUS, inhabiting those characters and personae.

And I like Nancy's voice a lot, has variations of her dad's world weariness to boot.