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HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

It's Ricky Nelson's Birthday !!

Rick, born May 8th 1940, is in the Rock 'n Roll hall of fame and is known as America's first "Teen Idol". Well......that ain't really so because all of the "Teen Idols" from the 1950's were trying to sound like Frank Sinatra. Rick, on the other habd, wanted to sound like his Idol, Carl Perkins.

According to Ricky, he was out on a date with a girl named Arlene. Elvis Presley's record (Rick didn't say which one), came on the radio and Arlene went nuts. Rick felt that he had to say something so he told her "Well, I'm going to make a record". ick says she laughed at him. He said in the interview "Even if I just made one record I was going to do it and just hand it to her". Ozzie, Rick's Dad and former band leader/recording artist, set up a session and three songs were cut. here's the result:

" I'm Walkin' " originally written and recorded by Fats Domino was released. It was an after thought to do it on his Dad's T.V. Show but Ozzie felt "It'll be good experience for the boy". " I'm Walkin' " shot up to No. 4 on Billboard's Pop charts. The "Flip" side of the record, "A Teenager's Romance" went to No. 2. " I'm Walkin' " was awarded a Gold Record for selling a million copies.

What happened to Arlene after that? Well, according to Rick, she came by the house and asked him why they weren't going out anymore. He basically said "Well I've been really busy recording, touring and doing the T.V. Show" Can you say Karma????

The third and final song recorded for Verve Records, basically a Jazz Label, was "You're My One And Only Love". The "Flip" side was an instrumental because Rick hadn't recorded anymore songs for them. This song got up to Number 14. Here's the 45 and 78 R.P.M. versions.

For Christmas 2011, I got myself a little gift off of e-bay. This is the only E.P. that was ever issued on the Verve Label. It combined the three songs Ricky sang, plus the instrumental. Pretty cool eh?

Because of the popularity of " I'm Walkin' " Fats Domino's label, Imperial, bought Rick's contract from Verve. Rick's first release, "Be Bop Baby" went to No. 3 on Billboard's Pop Charts. Here's the 78 R.P.M. in the original Imperial sleeve and a closer look at the label.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to tell you, "Be Bop Baby" was his second Million Seller. The 45 R.P.M. version was used in the award

Here's my all time favorite Ricky Nelson song "Stood Up". This is also my favorite picture sleeve as well. According to Billboard Magazine, "Stood Up" is Rick's third biggest hit record behind "Poor Little Fool" ( His biggest ) and "Travlein' Man" ( His secod biggest ) respectively. "Stood Up" made it to No. 2 on the charts for three weeks. The song that kept it from going to No. 1 was "At The Hop" by Danny & The Juniors. Other songs in the Top-10 that week were "Jailhouse Rock" by that fella from Memphis, "Great Balls Of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis, "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly, & "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms. The "Flip" side of this record didn't do too badly either. "Waitin' In School" made it to No. 18.

Left to Right, here are two different "Looks" of the 78 R.P.M. version of "Stood Up" and the 45 R.P.M. on the right.

Here's the Gold Record for "Stood Up" which I'm proud to say i own. In the 1950's a Gold Record was awarded to two people, the artist (in this case Ricky) and the record label owner (in this case Lou Chudd). Lou Chudd's estate put up all the Gold Records for auction few years ago and i was lucky enough to get the Gold one for my favorite song. My band performs "Stood Up" all the time at our gigs.

Like "Stood Up" , here's another one we do live. "Believe What You Say" is a reall rocker and went to No. 4 on the charts.

Here's the 78 R.P.M. version of the record.

This is Rick's fourth Gold Record. The "Flip" side of "Believe What You Say" was a song called "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It". This song did well rising up to No. 12 on Billboard's charts. For some strange reason, this Gold Record is for "Bucket" the "B" side and not "Believe What You Say". Go figure ...eh?

Here are the guys that sing most of the Back Up vocals for Rick. They're known as the Jordanaires. They're on a lot of people's records including Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, and who was that fella from Memphis with the sideburns? In this pictureare, from left to right, Gordan Stoker, Neil Matthews, Rick, Hoyte Hawkins and Ray Walker. I've gotten to know them and they also sing on a couple of tracks on my current Album/CD "Big Daddy D".

Here's a real good friend of mine Mr. Larry Cole. He's one talented Rockabilly cat and it's through Larry that i met the Joradanaires.

The Jordanaires are now in the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Gordan Stoker and Ray Walker (Both Center) are still singing with the group to this day.

"Poor Little Fool" according to Billboard Magazine is Ricky's Biggest Hit record. It was No. 1 for two weeks and charted a totoal of 15 weeks. The song was written by Shelly Sheeley who was, at the time, Eddie Cochran's girl friend. She met Rick through Eddie and offered the song to him. Rick, according to his biography, didn't like the song but she told him Elvis Presley was going to record it if he didn't. Rick recorded it and the song was burried on an album. A disc jockey in Philladelphiia got hold of it and started playing it and the rest is history. Many of Rick's 45's had picture sleeves to them, like Elvis Presley's records, but "Poor Little Fool" didn't. Again, according to his biography, it was in Rick's contract that he had final approval of any art work used on his singles, E.P. and L.P. releases. So to protest the fact that he didn't like the song and that it was released as a single against his wished, he didn't approve the art work. Imperial released the song anyway in a standard paper sleeve. Also worhty of mention is the fact that Rick never performed this song on the Ozzie & Harriet Show. The 45 R.P.M. version above left, is the actual record that my sister Ginny bought in 1958 and, yes, I can remember her buying it. The 78 R.P.M. version on the right I got from auction on e-bay.

"Poor Little Fool" is Rick's fifth Million Seller

Here's an E.P. that i bought at W.S. Gratnts, a store in the Westlake Shopping Center in Daly City California. For those who don't know E.P. stands for "Extended Play". This was a format used from the 1950's until about 1968. Basically, an E.P. was a "Mini" album. They were 45 R.P.M. records, 7 inches in diamiter like a single, with two or three songs on each side of it. Unlike a single which only had one song on each side. They also came in cardboard covers, like an L.P. album and not a paper sleeve like singles. An E.P. generally sold $1.25 and a single was a $1.00 or even less sometimes. You can see that this was marked down to forty-nine cents. Oh yeah, don't tell anybody, but this was the first record I ever bought with my alowance money that wasn't an Elvis Presley record ssssshhh ! :-)

Million Seller number six for Rick, "Lonesome Town" . The "Flip" side of the single, "I Got A Feeling" went Top-10 as well.

1959 was another good year for Ricky. Both sides of this single made Billboard's Top-10. "It's Late", the rocker, went to No. 9 and the "Flip" side went to No. 6. Me and the guys do both of these songs in our shows.

Ricky's seventh Million Seller. The award given to the "Ballad" side of the record, the song "Never Be Anyone Else But You".

Here's the picture sleeve for the 45 R.P.M. version of this "Double Sided" Hit single.

Here's another E.P. cover from 1959.

Here's E.P. from April 1960. It's a four song collection of Ricky singing spiritual songs. I never knew this exhisted until a few years ago. I learned about it from the four CD box set and a few months later, saw the E.P. at a collector's show. Let's just say i got real lucky on theprice of it.

Here's the double sided hit from 1961. "Travelin' Man" is, due to 'Oldies' Radio air play, proabbly Rick's most popular song. According to Billboard, it's Rick's second biggest hit record, behind "Pood Little Fool". The song was written by a guy named Jerry Fuller who went on to write songs like "Lady Willpower" and "Woman Woman" for Gary Puckett & the Union Gap.He also wrote a big hit in the 1970's called "Show And Tell" for Al Wilson. "Travellin' Man" by Rick went to No. 1 for two weeks and charted a total of sixteen weeks. The "Flip" side of the record was "Hello Mary Lou". "Mary Lou" went to No. 9 and charted for fifteen weeks.

"Travelin' Man" was Rick's eight Million Seller and the last record to show the name Ricky. Rick had turned twenty-one and felt that the name Rick was more appropriate.

When this page was originally posted,my band had plyed the Bruce Latimer T.V. Show and performed "Hello Mary Lou" I announced that folks could win a copy of one of my Albums/CDs if they could guess who wrote "Hello Mary Lou". Here's the answer:

Gene was put into the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame a few years ago. After doing a little research, I found that he also wrote "He's A Rebel" which was recorded by the Crystals.

"Young World" was a Top-10 record for "Rick" Nelson in 1962. This is another one me and the guys perform live.

Rick and a lot of the Rock 'n Rollers from the 1950's went through a "Dry Spell" in the late 1960's due to the "Brisitsh Invastion". Rick was disenchanted with his recordings so to shake things up he went in a different direction and started recording Country music. The singles and albums weren't very successful though. This was however the genisis of what became the "Country Rock" scene in L.A. in the late 60's and early 70's. Rick doesn't get the artistic credit he deserves for this. Most folks think of the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt , The Byrds and the Flying Buritto Brothers for starting this "New Sound" but Rick was there in L.A. performing this music at clubs like the Trubador right along with them. Rick formed the Stone Canyon Band and the original bass player was Randy Misner who went on to be a founding member of the Eagles. Randy co-wrote and sang lead on their song "Take It To The Limit". Rick's album "In Concert" was recorded at the Trubador and sparked an interest in his music again. In 1969 he had two minor hit singles, "She Belongs To Me" written by Bob Dylan and "Easy To Be Free" which Rick wrote himself. Live versions of both songs are on the "In Concert" album.

The "In Concert" album also showcased three of Rick's early hit singles, "Hello Mary Lou" , "I'm Walkin' " and "Believe What You Say" though they were performed in a country style and didn't sound at all like the hit versions. According to Randy Misner, Rick didn't really want to do any of his hits from the 50's and early 60's. Like most artists, he wanted to be known for whathe was currently doing, not for past success. So Rick would "Sprinkle" in one or two but do them in this new Country-Rock style. Rick felt that doing this breathed new life into the songs and I agree. The audiences of the time however did not and so this was the inspiration for his somg "Garden Party" which became his nineth Gold Single. As he wrote in the song "If memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck" ...'nuff said.

In the 1980's Rick came to terms with his Rick vs. Ricky Identity. He also came to terms with himself musically and started performing his 50's and 60's hits in the original styles again. I saw him three times live and his band could recreate his hits note for note....they ROCKED ! Rick was in the process of recording a new album when he died and this was the first single off of it. "You Know What I Mean" was a rockabilly song that could have been recorded in the 1950's. It even had Upright Bass and the Jordanaires on it.

I was playing the Sprotsman Club in San Bruno on the New Years Eve that Rick's plan went down. This fella wearing a Black "Rick Nelson" tour jacket asked if I knew any Ricky Nelson songs. I asked him if he wanted 5 minutes or 45 minutes of Ricky Nelson songs and he said 45. I didn't have a problem with that so i did.I had not heard the news because i was in the middle of my gig. He explainded that he was a former sound engenier for Rick and then he told me what happened and put $20.00 in my tip jar.

Okay Gang, Here's the Ricky Nelson Top - 20 list of hits according to Billboard magazine:

1) Poor Little Fool..............................No. 1 1958

2) Travelin' Man..................................No. 1 1961

3) Stood Up .......................................No. 2 1957

4) A Teenager's Romance...................No. 2 1957

5) Be Bop Baby...................................No. 3 1957

6) I'm Walkin'......................................No. 4 1957

7) Believe What You Say.....................No. 4 1958

8) Young World...................................No. 5 1962

9) Teen Age Idol..................................No. 5 1962

10) Garden Party..................................No. 6 1972

11) Never Be Anyone Else But You......No. 6 1959

12) It's Up To You................................No. 6 1962

13) For You..........................................No.6 1963

14) Lonesome Town............................No. 7 1958

15) Hello Mary Lou..............................No. 9 1961

16) It's Late..........................................No. 9 1959

17) Just A Little Too Much...................No. 9 1959

18) Sweeter Than You..........................No. 9 1959

19) A Wonder Like You.......................No. 11 1961

20) My Bucket's Got A Hole In It..........No. 11 1958

You know, looking at this list it's a wonder that oldies radio stations basically play only two or three of Rick's records. If you just listen to oldies radio, you'd think the only two songs he ever recorded were "Travelin' Man" and "Garden Party". I'm not complaining here, it's just a fact.Rick scored eighteen Top -10 records and a bunch that just missed getting into the Top - 10 but we only hear two of 'em. There's a new album........I mean CD out with all of the songs listed here. I encourage anyone who wants to know more about REAL Rock' n Roll, Rockabilly or about Ricky Nelson's music to get this one.

Whew.................This took me a few days to put together for you gang so I hope you liked this one. Enjoy the music, enjoy the pics, enjoy the little "Class" here on Ricky and always.

KEEP ON ROCKIN'

I'll plant you now and dig you later

Dave