Barton Lee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s and 1970s.
26 Facts About Lee Hazlewood
2.
Barton Lee Hazlewood was born in Mannford, Oklahoma, on July 9,1929.
3.
Hazlewood's father was an oil worker and had a sideline as a dance promoter; Hazlewood spent most of his youth living in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Louisiana.
4.
Lee Hazlewood spent his teenage years in Port Neches, Texas, where he was exposed to a rich Gulf Coast music tradition.
5.
Lee Hazlewood studied for a medical degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
6.
Lee Hazlewood served with the United States Army during the Korean War.
7.
Lee Hazlewood worked as a disc jockey in Coolidge, Arizona and two years later, moved to KRUX radio in Phoenix.
8.
Lee Hazlewood's first hit single as a producer and songwriter was "The Fool", recorded by rockabilly artist Sanford Clark in 1955.
9.
Lee Hazlewood partnered with pioneering rock guitarist Duane Eddy, producing and co-writing a string of hit instrumental records.
10.
Lee Hazlewood later described him as "part Henry Higgins and part Sigmund Freud".
11.
Lee Hazlewood performed that song along with "Jackson" on her 1967 television special Movin' With Nancy.
12.
Early in 1967, Lee Hazlewood produced the number 1 hit song for Frank and Nancy Sinatra "Somethin' Stupid".
13.
Lee Hazlewood wrote the theme song "The Last of the Secret Agents", the theme song of the 1966 spy-spoof film of the same title.
14.
For Frank Sinatra's 1967 detective film, Tony Rome, Lee Hazlewood wrote the theme song which was performed by Nancy.
15.
Lee Hazlewood wrote "Houston", a 1965 US hit recorded by Dean Martin.
16.
Lee Hazlewood produced several singles for Martin's daughter, Deana Martin, including her country hit, "Girl of the Month Club", while Deana was a teenager.
17.
Lee Hazlewood wrote "This Town", a song that was recorded by Frank Sinatra that appeared on his 1968 album Greatest Hits and is the basis for Paul Shaffer's "Small Town News" segment theme on the Late Show with David Letterman.
18.
In 1967, Hazlewood started his own record label, LHI Records.
19.
The contract Parsons had signed with Lee Hazlewood's LHI caused a great deal of trouble for himself and The Byrds, and in the court settlement most of Parsons' material on Sweetheart of the Rodeo had the vocals removed and re-recorded by Roger McGuinn.
20.
Lee Hazlewood had a supporting role in the movie The Moonshine War, released in 1970 from a story by Elmore Leonard, starring Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda and Will Geer.
21.
Lee Hazlewood said that he loved producing and writing albums.
22.
Lee Hazlewood's last recording was for the vocals of Icelandic quartet Amiina's single "Hilli ".
23.
Lee Hazlewood used Naomi's maiden name for The Shacklefords, a short-lived vocal group he formed with Marty Cooper in early-1960s Los Angeles; Naomi herself contributed vocals to the group's recordings.
24.
Lee Hazlewood had a granddaughter named Phaedra, a tribute to the lyrics of "Some Velvet Morning".
25.
In 2005, Lee Hazlewood was diagnosed with terminal renal cancer, and he undertook an extensive round of interviews and promotional activities in support of his last album, Cake or Death.
26.
Lee Hazlewood died of renal cancer in Henderson, Nevada, on August 4,2007, survived by his wife Jeane, son Mark and daughters Debbie and Samantha.