Rick Nelson – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

On Turn Table Talk, the topic was “It’s No Act!” . We all can think of musicians who’ve tried to make the leap to acting – David Bowie, Cher, Sting, among many others – but this month we’re looking at actors/actresses or other celebrities who’ve decided to try to launch a music career after being noted in other entertainment fields. I picked Ricky Nelson. Thanks Dave!

I think Ricky Nelson is one of the few examples of actors who went into music and were remembered as musicians. He was a good actor, but he will be remembered more as a musician.

I went through a Ricky Nelson phase when I graduated in 1985. I purchased a greatest-hits package and was learning more of his songs. I wanted to go see him perform that year, and I kept waiting for him to appear somewhere because I heard he was touring. This was before the internet, and you had to read the newspapers for announcements and listen to the radio. Musicians would play at places, and you would never know sometimes.

I never got a chance to see him because on December 31, 1985, his chartered jet crashed, killing him and six other passengers. Ricky was a rockabilly guy and a great one. He gets lost in the shuffle because he was a huge teenage actor at the time on his family’s show…The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In the rock world, being a teen idol knocks you down the respect ladder.

Before Ricky Nelson became one of the biggest teen idols of the 1950s, he was already a television star. He was born in 1940 into a show business family. His parents, Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson, starred in the popular radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ricky appeared on the show as himself beginning in the early 1950s. Millions of viewers watched him grow up on screen each week. By the time he reached his teenage years, he was already one of the most recognizable young faces in America.

Music came almost by accident. Ricky wanted to impress a girl (she was a massive Elvis fan) and claimed he was a recording artist. To make the story true, he recorded Fats Domino’s I’m Walkin’ in 1957. The song became a hit. Soon he was recording regularly and turning out hits such as Poor Little Fool, Travelin’ Man, and Hello Mary Lou. Unlike many teen stars of the era, Nelson worked with strong musicians and was full tilt in rockabilly and early rock and roll.

As the 1960s arrived, Nelson continued acting while building a successful music career. He later dropped the “Ricky” and became known as Rick Nelson. His sound matured and moved toward country rock before the style became popular. While television gave him his start, music became his legacy. He is remembered as one of the few entertainers who successfully made the jump from television star to respected recording artist.

The sad part is that his music wasn’t taken as seriously later on because he was a teen idol. That started to change over time, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987. I always considered Rick Nelson a musician and a great rockabilly artist, along with country rock. I always considered him the real deal.