b. Barton Lee Hazlewood, 9 July 1929, Mannford, Oklahoma, USA, d. 4 August 2007, Henderson, Nevada, USA. Hazlewood, the son of an oil worker, studied medicine at the Southern Methodist University in Fort Worth, Texas and served in Korea as a disc jockey for military radio. On his return in 1953, Hazlewood became a disc jockey at the KCKY station in Coolidge, Arizona. Two years later he took up a position at KRUX in Phoenix, and also set himself up as an independent record producer with his own Viv Record label and Debra Publishing Company. Hazlewood's burgeoning songwriting career saw him pen "The Fool", "Run Boy Run" and "Son Of A Gun" for Sanford Clark. On Clark's recordings, Hazlewood experimented with ways of recording Al Casey's guitar, often using echo. In 1957, after "The Fool" had become a US Top 10 pop hit for the Dot Records label, Hazlewood formed the unsuccessful Jamie label, with publisher Lester Sill and television host Dick Clark. He also began working with the guitarist Duane Eddy, whom he had first met during his spell at KCKY. Hazlewood created the "twangy guitar" by slowing down Eddy's notes and deepening his sound, and the two men co-wrote many instrumental hits including "Rebel-Rouser", "Cannonball", "Shazam" and, with a minimal lyric, "(Dance With The) Guitar Man".

Eddy was the first major performer to include musicians' names on album sleeves and, similarly, Hazlewood was acknowledged as the producer. Eddy also backed Hazlewood on a single, "The Girl On Death Row"/"Words Mean Nothing". Much of Eddy's success stemmed from his regular appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, but Clark's payola allegations subsequently harmed Eddy's career. In the mid-60s Hazlewood inaugurated the LHI label, where he produced the seminal Safe At Home album by the International Submarine Band (including Gram Parsons). At Reprise Records in 1965, he wrote and produced US hits by Dean Martin ("Houston") and Dino, Desi And Billy, who included Martin's son ("I'm A Fool").

When Hazlewood was assigned to Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of the label's owner, who had made several unsuccessful singles, he promised to secure her hits. Nicknaming her "Nasty Jones", he gave her "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", which had been written for a man, and said, "You gotta get a new sound and get rid of this babyness. You're not a virgin anymore so let's do one for the truck drivers. Bite the words". Sinatra's boots stomped over the international charts, and she followed it with other Hazlewood songs including "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'", "Sugartown" and "Lightning's Girl". Their duets include the playful "Jackson" and the mysterious "Some Velvet Morning" and "Lady Bird". The partnership folded because Sinatra tired of singing Hazlewood's songs, although she has made few records since.

Hazlewood, whose singing voice was as deep as Eddy's guitar, tried for the US country charts with a cover version of "Ode To Billie Joe", and also produced Waylon Jennings' Singer Of Sad Songs. His own albums include his 1963 debut Trouble Is A Lonesome Town, a sombre collection about the characters in a western town, and the obscure Swedish releases Cowboy In Sweden (1970) and Requiem For An Almost Lady (1971), the latter a sincere tribute to a girlfriend who had died. By the release of the latter Hazlewood was living a bohemian existence, flitting between homes in Stockholm, Paris and London and releasing increasingly eccentric albums. His 1973 collection Poet, Fool Or Bum was dismissed in one word by the New Musical Express - "Bum". One track, "The Performer", emphasized his disillusionment, and after several obscure records for the Scandinavian and German markets he disappeared from view in the late 70s.

Hazlewood reappeared in 1995, touring America with Nancy Sinatra. In the late 90s, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley began re-releasing Hazlewood's back catalogue on his own Smells Like Records label. The singer's renaissance continued with the release of a collection of off-cuts and demos in 2002 and a new collaboration with Sinatra two years later. He was diagnosed with renal cancer in 2006 and passed away the following August, having completed a new studio album (Cake Or Death) prior to his death.
<