Saturday, October 24, 2015

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Eileen

Artist:Eileen
Song:Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher
Album:Best Of Pop a Paris: Psyche-Rock et Minijupes




Fans of the TV series Gossip Girl have probably heard this French version of Nancy Sinatra's smash hit These Boots Are Made For Walkin' and wondered what the heck it is. Eileen not only recorded the song in French but in German and Italian. Fans of the TV series Orphan Black have heard the German version. And the funniest part of this is Eileen is American. Eileen Goldsen was born May 16, 1941 in New York City. Her father was music publisher Micky Goldsen. After studying french at UCLA, she took a job as a teacher and moved to Paris in 1963. She got into music when she was asked to translate English folk songs to French. She told Disc'AZ that she wanted to record the songs and they tried her out. She released a couple of EPs. The second EP included French versions of two Lee Hazlewood songs. When the Hazlewood song These Boots Are Made For Walkin' became a big hit for Nancy Sinatra, AZ's distributor Vogue Records wanted a German version. It was not unusual for European record companies to record foreign language versions of big US hits. Eileen was suggested and she recorded French, German and Italian versions of These Boots Are Made For Walkin'. Vogue had to get permission to use the song from the US publisher who turned out to be Eileen's dad. The German version was recorded first and it did well in England but the other versions did well too. There is also a version by the Quebecois singer Muguette which was a hit there. You can get Eileen's French version on this 2CD comp from Universal France. Eileen didn't want to be known as a Nancy Sinatra tribute act so she went back to recording folk songs. She also recorded with Mickey Baker including a remake of the Mickey and Sylvia hit Love Is Strange. By the late 60s, Eileen's music career was over and later she got into music publishing just like her dad. Here's a video for Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher by Eileen. Thanks to Ready Steady Girls for the Eileen bio.

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