Ricky Nelson Biography

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Ricky Nelson
Pop Music | 3 CD Set
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The television show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (Nelson) became the American clichÈ of family life in the '50s. It also became somewhat of a burden on the cast members in later life because it created something of a fantasy life. If the '50s were the "Ike Years," after then-president Eisenhower, a period of non-confrontational social life, then the Nelsons were the quintessential American family. History has proved most of this '50s climate to be fictional, however, and a 1998 television biographical documentary about the Nelson family indicated there was more to life with Ozzie and Harriet than a thirty minute show every week. The program actually utilized all four members of the family, one-time bandleader Ozzie, wife and former singer Harriet (Hilliard) and two sons David and Ricky, who virtually grew up on television. Ricky was born Eric Hilliard Nelson in New Jersey in 1940 and died in 1985 in a tragic plane crash at age 45. He had been a teen idol as a singer but evolved into a mature performer who had hits both as a teen and as an adult. He had been on the "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" radio show from 1948 and when it transferred to television stayed with it until the end in the mid-60s. Ricky was 17 when he got his first charted single, "I'm Walking," which made it to No. 17. It was only three weeks later that he scored his first big hit, the No. 2 rated "A Teenager's Romance." In 1957, he had seven hits, including "Bebop Baby" (No. 3) and "Stood Up" (No. 2). In 1958, five more hits came alive, and one of them was his first No. 1 single, "Poor Little Fool." By his 21st birthday, May 8, 1961, he had ran up 24 hits on the Top 40 chart, including "Travelin' Man" at No. 1 and his final Ricky Nelson single, "Hello Mary Lou" (No. 9). From 1961-64, he was Rick Nelson and in 1970 he recorded as Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Road, charting a No. 6 in his ironic "Garden Party" in 1972, his last Top 40 hit of the 35 he registered in fifteen years. The song was about his audience's refusal to let him grow out of his teen-idol past and came about after an unfortunate appearance in an oldies show in Madison Square Garden. The crowd wanted oldies, Nelson wanted to do his new music. Of those singles, eleven were two-sided hits as he made the b-sides as popular as the a-sides of records. He switched to an early form of countrified rock in the mid-60's, doing songs by such writers as Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Tim Hardin and Randy Newman. His band included two giant guitarists, James Burton and then Randy Meisner, who was one of the founding members of the Eagles. An adept actor from the television series, Nelson was at home in the movies, too, and in 1959 was in the big western "Rio Bravo," with John Wayne and Dean Martin. Still performing as a concert attraction into the '80s, he was killed in Texas when his aircraft crashed.

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