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