How Nancy Sinatra’s Cover of The Beatles’ ‘Run for Your Life’ Flips the Song on Its Head
The Beatles‘ songs have been covered by so many artists that most of the covers got lost in the shuffle. Nancy Sinatra’s version of The Beatles’ “Run for Your Life” is one the most perplexing tunes in her catalog. After listening to it, it’s impossible not to have a lot of deep, uncomfortable thoughts.
Is Nancy Sinatra’s cover of The Beatles’ ‘Run for Your Life’ a feminist song?
The Beatles’ “Run for Your Life” is undoubtedly the most misogynistic song they ever released. In it, John sings that if his “little girl” cheats on him, he will try to murder her. I have no idea how that came across in 1965 but today, that lyric is unthinkably brutal.
Sinatra recorded the tune for her album Boots — the same record that includes the early feminist hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” How should audiences understand Sinatra’s decision to gender-flip “Run for Your Life?” Is it an empowering statement? Is it just as toxic as the original song? Maybe it’s a joke. It’s up to everyone to come to their own conclusions.
Nancy Sinatra liked making The Beatles’ song ‘girly’
During a 2013 interview with Vice, Sinatra was asked if she ever covered a song she felt she could improve. “I don’t know that I had that in mind, but I think sometimes I did do it better than the original,” she opined. “Like ‘Bang Bang.’ And no offense to Cher, because her record is great and it sold millions of copies. But I like turning a song around and really hearing what the lyric says.” For context, Cher’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” is jaunty while Sinatra’s cover is a smoky rock ballad. The latter is mostly known for appearing in a scene from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1.
“Another thing I like to do is take guy songs and make them girly,” she said. “Like ‘Day Tripper’ and some of the Beatles things. ‘Run for your life, little boy.'” Notably, Sinatra has also covered classic tunes by other male artists, such as The Beach Boys, The Eagles, and Bob Dylan.
What John Lennon thought of ‘Run for Your Life’
During a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John discussed the origin of “Run for Your Life.” “Yeah, it has a line from an old Presley song: ‘I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man’ is a line from an old blues song that Presley did once,” he said. For context, the line is from Elvis’ “Baby Let’s Play House,” which was originally by Arthur Gunter.
John revealed what he thought about “Run for Your Life.” “Just a sort of throwaway song of mine that I never thought much of, but it was always a favorite of George’s,” he said. While John had plenty to say about some of The Beatles’ songs in that interview, he didn’t dwell on “Run for Your Life” much.
Sinatra released several great songs but her version of “Run for Your Life” is one of the most thought-provoking.
