A Case for Ricky Nelson’s Music Contributions
And His Surprising Relationship with the Beatles
Eric Hilliard “Ricky” Nelson was born in 1940 in Teaneck, NJ. He was born into a family of established stardom, having both parents being popular household names, to provide the family more entertainment options, his father (Ozzie) decided to move most of the family West to Hollywood for him to appear on Red Skelton’s The Raliegh Cigarette Hour in 1941.
In 1944, Skelton was drafted into the service and the show’s producer decided to launch “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” on radio. Ozzie eventually took over the head writer’s role and shaped the show around his family, especially focusing on his 2 sons. Ricky [and his brother David] began performing at 8 years old in the very successful radio series.
In 1952, Ozzie produced the successful small-budget film “Here Come the Nelsons” which paved the way for the launch of the TV version of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, which ran for an impressive 14 years. Coincidently, during this same time span TV ownership in American homes exploded, which help rocket Ricky’s career as a multi-faceted media performer.
I think it’s very fair to say that Ricky Nelson was to a large degree an invention of his father who was a master showman.
There wasn’t anything nefarious about how he methodically crafted his son’s career. To be clear, Ozzie Nelson wasn’t a personally hurtful manager like Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson’s father). Rather he was thoughtful and included him in the master plan and, most importantly, Ricky trusted his dad. But, the fact remains, Ozzie’s guidance was essential to Ricky’s success. The boom in TV ownership and Ozzie’s creativity put Ricky Nelson on the road to an impresive career start.
Example: Several months prior to releasing “I’m Walkin”, 17-year-old Ricky showed up unannounced at a high school lunch assembly and succeeded to put his teen audience into a frenzy with “Blue Moon of Kentucky” backed by The Four Preps, a new Southern California band who later amassed 8 gold record singles on their own. Do you think Ozzie had anything to do with it? Hummmmm…
Several months later, Ricky released his first record single, a cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin” which reached No4 on Billboard’s Best Seller in Stores chart which was the forerunner of Billboards better known Hot 100.
Ricky was a big fan of Elvis Presley but wasn’t as high on Rock ’N’ Roll and old southern blues songs as Elvis. Rather he preferred rockabilly and more up-tempo rock songs. Elvis was an incomparable “in your face” frontman versus Ricky who offered a much calmer stage presence. This important distinction helped Ricky to carve out his own niche and not be viewed a TV-created “pretty boy” Elvis’s knock-off.
Like Elvis and unlike most white American artists, his songs charted very similarly in the UK and other western countries to his US chart positions. International fans liked his music and knew nothing about his TV family. He and Elvis broadened the appeal of American music in a very compatible way.
In 1957 Ozzie moved Ricky away from his previous label to Imperial Records which gave him a very lucrative 5-year contract, unprecedented control over song selection, sleeve artwork and many other minutia production details. It was all Ozzie’s work.
His music career flourished with this select body of his work.
· “Bee Bop Baby” (1957) reached No3.
· Ricky (1957), his first album, reached No1.
· “Stood Up” (1957) reached No2.
· “A Teenager’s Romance” (1957) reached No2.
· “Poor Little Fool” (1958) reached No1 on the new Billboard Hot 100. It also featured the Jordanaires for his backing vocals. They worked with Elvis.
· Ricky Nelson (1958) His second album reached No7.
· “Believe What You Say” (1958) reached No4.
· “I Got a Feeling” (1958) reached No10.
· “Lonesome Town” (1958) reached No7. It also featured the Jordanaires.
· “Never Be Anyone Else But You” (1959) reached No6. It also featured the Jordanaires.
· Ricky Sings Again (1958) his 3rd album reached No14.
· Songs by Ricky (1958) his 4th album reached No22.
· “Sweeter Than You” (1959) reached No9.
· “Just A Little Too Much” (1959) reached No9.
· More Songs by Ricky (1959) his 5th album reached No22.
· Rick is 21 (1960) his 6th album reached No8.
Note: He ‘s no longer “Ricky”.
· “Hello Mary Lou” & “Travelin’ Man” (1961) Double A-side reached No1. It also featured the Jordanaires.
· “It’s A Young World” (1962) reached No5.
· Album Seven by Rick Nelson (1962) his 7th album reached No27.
· “Teen Age Idol” (1962) reached No5.
· “It’s Up to You” (1962) reached No6.
· “Fools Rush In” (1963) reached No12.
· For Your Sweet Love (1963) his 8th album charted at No20.
· Rick Nelson Sings “For You” (1963) his 9th album reached No14.
· “For You” (1963) reached No6 and had been covered by many notable singers, but Ricky’s version charted the best.
· “Garden Party” (1972) reached No6 and was his last single to chart in a meaningful way.
I’ll discuss that 8-year gap between the last 2 songs later in my article.
If you weren’t counting, he scored 20 Top 10 hit singles from 1957–1963.
Ozzie used television and film to market both Ricky’s squeaky-clean image and his music. “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” remained a highly watched family show and Ozzie used it smartly to promote Ricky’s new releases several times a month at the end of the show.
And, unlike Elvis, Ozzie & Ricky were both interested in expanding Ricky’s presence into movies that were more serious and featured credible leading actors that didn’t require Ricky’s acting performance to carry the movie. Rather, he was chosen for the role because his presence would broaden the appeal of the movie to a younger audience. Examples include:
· “Rio Bravo” (1959) which also featured John Wayne and Dean Martin, both during their prime acting years.
· “The Wackiest Ship in The Army” (1960) featuring Lack Lemmon during his prime acting years.
· “Love and Kisses” (1965) was written, produced and directed by guess who?
· “Hondo” (1967 TV Series) in which he played Jesse James.
· “The Over-The-Hill Gang” (1969) is a TV film loaded with many well-known older Western actors.
· In the 1970’s he continued acting in many highly rated TV programs but more in a guest appearance capacity.
Like so many American artists in 1964, both Rick’s pop idol image and music didn’t fit with the arrival of the Beatles and the following flood of English musical acts. Sensing his current irrelevancy, he tried but unsuccessfully pivoted to country music (1966) and psychedelic music (1967). Sadly, he had lost his commercial fan base and would never regain his former iconic status.
So, what did the Beatles think of Rick Nelson? As it turns out, all the Beatles ending up having a very positive individual relationship with Rick.
Interestingly, he was 5 years younger than Elvis and was much more a peer of the Beatles.
Both Ringo and John were his age. What did they think of his music? “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” was strictly an American TV show, so the Beatles weren’t affected by anything other than his music.
According to the book “Ricky Nelson: Idol for Generation” by Joel Selvin, Paul and George, both big rockabilly fans, considered him on par professionally with Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. And Ricky was a huge Carl Perkins fan as were all the Beatles. Here are few other examples of their relationships with each other.
· George rented a house in Malibu, CA next door to Rick for a few years and they became friends.
· Rick met John and Yoko backstage at the “Rock & Roll Spectacular” concert at Madison Square Garden in 1971. Nelson’s performance faced audience disapproval when he and his country/rock band played new material, notably a country version of the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman”. John and Yoko apparently comforted him about the crowd’s negative response about his physical appearance. Rick was inspired to write “Garden Party” by the experience. It was to be his last major hit song.
· Rick showed up at a party hosted during Paul’s 1976 “Wings over America” tour. Paul reportedly ran over to meet him bursting into Rick’s hit song “Stood Up”. Paul definitely knew who he was.
· In 1980, Paul attempted to produce a rockabilly album at the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis with Rick but was unable to make it happen due to legal complexities with the record company.
· Paul included his own cover of “Lonesome Town” on his 1999 album Run Devil Run and he performed it many times live concert.
In summary, between 1957 and 1963 Rick placed a phenomenal 32 songs in the Top 40 chart list exceeded by only Elvis Presley (53) and Pat Boone (38). Unlike next generation performers like the Beatles, none of the hit songs were written by these 3 artists. In my opinion, he deserves more respect than he gets.
He tragically died flying to a 1985 New Years Show.
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