Summer Wine

"Summer Wine" is a song written by Lee Hazlewood. It was originally sung by Suzi Jane Hokom and Lee Hazlewood in 1966, but it was made famous by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood in 1967. This version was originally released as the B-side of "Sugar Town" the previous year, before featuring on the Nancy & Lee LP in 1968. It was the first of Sinatra and Hazlewood's string of popular duets.

Lyrically, "Summer Wine" describes a man, voiced by Hazlewood, who meets a woman, Sinatra, who notices his silver spurs and invites him to have wine with her. After heavy drinking, the man awakens hungover to find his spurs and money have been stolen by the mysterious woman; the subtext of which being they experienced intercourse and as repayment she misappropriated his "silver spurs a dollar and a dime". He then declares a longing for more of her "wine". One interpretation, is that the man singing the song was seduced by the woman in order to steal his money and belongings. Another interpretation, sometimes cited, is that the song contains an allegorical description of drug use and that the lyric "she reassured me with an unfamiliar line" specifically refers to cocaine though that is anomalous for the apparent period setting. The song was used in the movie Stoker (film) and is also on the film soundtrack.

Covers

The song was later covered by Demis Roussos, Bono of U2 with The Corrs, Ultima Thule, Gry with FM Einheit and his Orchestra, Anna Hanski & Lee Hazlewood, Scooter (on the 2000 album Sheffield), Jack Grace, Moimir Papalescu and The Nihilists (with the male and female parts switched) and by Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon for the soundtrack of Das Wilde Leben. The version by Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon was the 4th best-selling single of 2007 in Germany^[1] and was certified Platinum by the BVMI.^[2]

"Summer Wine" was also covered by Ed Kuepper and Clare Bowditch on the cult Australian music game show Rockwiz.^[3]

A French cover called Vin de l'été was released by Marie Laforêt & Gérard Klein in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

A Spanish cover called "Néctar de Verano" was released by Kela Gates -

A Dutch cover called Toverdrank (English: Potion) (on the album Een man zoals ik (English: A man like me)) was performed by Guido Belcanto and An Pierlé in 2011.^[4]

Two different German cover versions were released by Roland Kaiser (with Nancy Sinatra) in 1996 and by Claudia Jung & Nik P. in 2011.^{[citation needed]}

Slovak cover called Mladé víno (Young wine) was released by Marcela Laiferová and Zdeno Sychra in 1967.^{[citation needed]}

Also, Betty Chung covered it as 迷魂酒.

An Icelandic cover called Sumarást (Summer love) was released by Hljómsveit Ingimars Eydal in 1968 and by Helgi Björnsson og Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir in 2007 for the movie Astrópía.^{[citation needed]}

On April 18, 2013, Lana Del Rey released a music video for her and Barrie-James O'Neill's (from Kassidy) cover of "Summer Wine" by Lee Hazlewood.^[5]

References