"Sugar Town" is a song written by songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood and first recorded by American singer Nancy Sinatra in 1966. As a single released under the Reprise label, it peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1966, while reaching number one on the Easy Listening chart in January 1967.^[1] It became a gold record. The song was included on Nancy Sinatra's LP, Sugar, also released in 1966, and was featured in her 1967 TV special Movin' with Nancy, released on home video in 2000.^[2]

Background

The song is an allusion to sugar cubes laced with Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), though – like other songs Hazlewood wrote – "Sugar Town" was deliberately enigmatic: directed to a young audience, yet outwardly tame enough to receive radio play. Hazlewood denied that he had ever used LSD, or regularly partaken in drugs in general. He explained:

You had to make the lyric dingy enough where the kids knew what you were talking about—and they did. Double entendre. But not much more if you wanted to get it played on the radio. We used to have lotsa of trouble with lyrics, but I think it’s fun to keep it hidden a little bit.^[3]

The B-side to "Sugar Town" was "Summer Wine", a popular duet also written by, and featuring, Hazlewood.^[4]

Personnel

According to the AFM contract sheet, the following musicians played on the track.^[5]

• Billy Strange – listed as session leader
• Don Lanier – listed as session conductor
• Roy Caton
• Ollie Mitchell
• Don Randi
• Carol Kaye
• Don Bagley
• Lou Morell
• Al Casey
• Glen Campbell
• Gary Coleman
• Hal Blaine

Cover versions

Hong Kong artist Nancy Sit covered the song, released as a single by Crane Brand Records in 1967.

Swedish band Shitkid covered the song on the 2017 album Fish.

In 2022, Mariano Garcia released an adaptation of this song as a single with the name "Tucumán". The lyrics allude to the province of Tucumán, Argentina, where the music video was shot.^[6]

In popular culture

In 2005, the song plays in the background of Six Feet Under (TV series) in season 5, episode 5, entitled "Eat a Peach." The song plays during a scene in which Billy and Claire meet in an attempt to create closure in their relationship. The song is a possible allusion to the amount of drugs Claire has been routinely engaged in and/or to Billy's psychosis.

In the 2009 romantic comedy film 500 Days of Summer, Zooey Deschanel performs the song.

In 2017, for the season 3 opener "Mabel", of the television series Better Call Saul, the original song plays in its entirety over the opening scene.

In the 2020 mystery comedy film The Kid Detective, the original song plays over the opening scenes, and again over the closing credits.