Nancy Sinatra/Mareva/Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Bang Bang

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain‘s latest album, Precious Little, contains a version of this song (made famous by Nancy Sinatra’s version on the Kill Bill Soundtrack) but they’re not the first to do it on the uke. Former Miss France, Mareva Galanter did a ukulele version on her Ukuyeye album (which combined two of my musical loves that I never thought I’d see together) she also has the only flash website so cool it doesn’t make me run away and look at a blank sheet of paper for half an hour.

Ukulele Boogaloo has the chords and tab for the intro but the way they’ve written up the intro strikes me as crazy. It makes more sense to play it this way:

Bang Bang My Baby Shot Me Down

At the start of the intro bar your index finger across the third fret and leave it there until bar 4. Let as many notes as possible ring into each other – to recreate the sound of the original. The notes in brackets are ‘ghost notes’ i.e. played more softly than the others. These aren’t fully part of the tune but help to support it – it’s your choice whether to play them or not.

Buy Kill Bill Soundtrack US UK

(that must be the first time I’ve anything cheaper in the UK than in the US)

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10 Comments

  1. Chuck August 9th, 2007 11:38 pm

    That’s really beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

  2. artifus August 9th, 2007 11:50 pm
  3. Woodshed August 10th, 2007 12:01 am

    You’re welcome, Chuck. I’ve just been perusing your blog. I’ve been saying, “Yes, exactly,” to almost everything.

    You play the ukulele? Or just being friendly?

  4. Woodshed August 10th, 2007 12:03 am

    Thanks for the link, artifus. I’ll give that a listen tomorrow. Looks interesting.

  5. Woodshed August 12th, 2007 3:15 pm

    I’ve just listened to that. The Queen took ukulele lessons? I think it would justify the entire civil list if she knocked out a few George Formby songs in the Christmas Queen’s speech.

  6. Chuck August 15th, 2007 11:18 pm

    Actually, I studied as a classical musician for several years, but I’ve never played uke.

    Glad you’ve enjoyed poking around my site. As you know, I’ve been away from it due to illness, but I’m still poking around the web a little bit when I’m up to it.

  7. laura April 29th, 2010 5:10 am

    you should put the rest of the song up :)..also check out rachel goodrich..she plays the ukulele..itd be sweet if some of her songs were on here.

  8. matt October 20th, 2011 7:38 pm

    Love this song. Thanks for the tab :)

  9. Woodshed October 21st, 2011 7:27 am

    matt: You’re welcome!

  10. David September 25th, 2012 8:38 pm

    Hey! I love your site here and I’ve been lurking around for a while. I really enjoy this song but none of the versions that I’ve found online give chords that are in the same key (scale? idk) as this intro, so it always sounds weird when I make the transition.

    Any idea what chords would go well for the song after this intro portion?

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