American singer and songwriter Ricky Nelson was an early teen idol who acted out his real-life childhood as the son of Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson on the popular series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He began to conclude each episode with a song from his band and quickly became popular as a musician. He went on to produce a number of albums, and owned the music charts for a three-year period from 1957 through 1959 with his hit songs.
Background
Ethnicity:
His father Ozzie Nelson was of half Swedish descent.
Ricky Nelson was born on May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA as Eric Hilliard Nelson. His paternal grandfather was an amateur singer and dancer and his paternal grandmother played rag-time piano. On the other side of the family, both his maternal grandparents were itinerant actors. Nelson's parents were also involved in the entertainment industry. His father, Oswald or "Ozzie" Nelson, was a well-known bandleader and his mother, Harriet (Hilliard) Nelson was an actress and singer. Although his mother temporarily gave up her career to care for Nelson and his older brother David, both Ozzie and Harriet could not deny their desire to perform. Consequently, after living briefly in Teaneck, New Jersey, the Nelsons moved to California to pursue their careers in entertainment. Initially the young Nelson remained in New Jersey and was cared for by his grandmother, Ethel Nelson. He joined his family in California in 1942.
Education
Ricky Nelson was an early teen idol who had a considerable amount of talent to complement his blue-eyed good looks. On television, he and his older brother David acted out their real-life roles as the sons of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. As a rock-and-rolling teenager on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Ricky Nelson practically grew up in the nation’s living rooms.
Nelson attended Gardner Street Public School, Bancroft Junior High and, between 1954 and 1958, Hollywood High School, from which he graduated with a B average. He played football at Hollywood High and represented the school in interscholastic tennis matches.
At Hollywood High Nelson was blackballed by the Elksters, a fraternity of a dozen conservative sports-loving teens. Many of the Elksters were family friends and spent weekends at the Nelson home playing basketball or relaxing around the pool. In relation, he joined the Rooks, a greaser car club of sideburned high school teens clad in leather jackets and motorcycle boots. Nelson was jailed twice in connection with incidents perpetrated by the Rooks, and escaped punishment after sucker-punching a police officer only through the intervention of his father.
Ozzie Nelson was a Rutgers alumnus and keen on college education, but eighteen-year-old Ricky was already in the 93 percent income-tax bracket and saw no reason to attend. At age thirteen, Ricky was making over $100,000 per annum, and at sixteen he had a personal fortune of $500,000. Nelson's wealth was astutely managed by his parents, who channeled his earnings into trust funds.
In 1963, Nelson signed a 20-year contract with Decca Records, but he had no further rock and roll hits after 1964's "For You." In the mid-1960s, he began to move towards country music. He did not reach the Top 40 again until 1970, when he recorded Bob Dylan's "She Belongs To Me" with the Stone Canyon Band.
In 1972, Nelson reached the Top 40 one last time with "Garden Party," a song he wrote in disgust after a Madison Square Garden audience booed him when he tried playing new songs instead of his old hits from the 1950s and 1960s. "Garden Party" reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and was certified as a gold single. Coincidentally, "Garden Party" was a hit at the same time that Elvis Presley was having his last Top 10 single, "Burning Love," as was Chuck Berry with "My Ding-a-Ling." Berry is among the musicians alluded to in the lyrics of "Garden Party."
However, Nelson never regained his career's momentum. By the late 1970s, Nelson's life was in shambles. His wife had divorced him and taken their four children. He wasn't making records and when he played live, it was in small, relatively insignificant venues. He also began using drugs, especially marijuana.
Nelson received a boost in 1985 when he joined a nostalgia rock tour of England. The tour was a major success, and it revived some interest in Nelson.
Achievements
Along with the recording's other participants, Nelson earned the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions."
Nelson's estate (The Rick Nelson Company, LLC) owns ancillary rights to the Ozzie and Harriet television series, and, in 2007, Shout! Factory released official editions of the show on DVD. Also in 2007, Nelson was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
"When they claim my body, they won't have much to say. Except that he lived a good life, he lived every day. And you know he saw the sunshine, and you know he felt the rain. He loved everybody, And he hopes you do the same."
Personality
He at first had no ambition to be a rock singer. When a girlfriend told him that she was in love with Elvis Presley, Rick told her that he was a rock singer, too. He hurriedly cut a cover of Fats Domino's song "I'm Walkin'", which became a big hit and started his musical career.
Nelson was a handsome Fifties teen idol who wore his hair in a fashionable flat-top with a ducktail. For his musical debut, he did an Elvis Presley impersonation on Ozzie and Harriet in order to impress a high-school sweetheart who had a crush on Presley.
Physical Characteristics:
6' (1,83 m)
Quotes from others about the person
He was described by Red Skelton's producer John Guedel as "an odd little kid," likable, shy, introspective, mysterious, and inscrutable.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
car club
Music & Bands
Elvis Presley
Connections
He married Kristin Harmon on April 20 in 1963 and divorced 27 of December in 1982. They have 4 children: Tracy Nelson, Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson and Sam Nelson.
Father:
Ozzie Nelson
Originated and starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a radio and long-running television series with his wife Harriet and two sons David and Ricky Nelson.
Mother:
Harriet Hilliard
She was an American singer and actress. Harriet is best known for her role on the long-running sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
Friend:
John Lennon
John was an English singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the band the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. With fellow member Paul McCartney, he formed a celebrated songwriting partnership.
Yoko is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist who is also known for her work in performance art, music and filmmaking. She is the widow and second wife of singer-songwriter John Lennon.
Friend:
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is a folk rock singer-songwriter whose career began in the early 1960s with songs that chronicled social issues like war and civil rights.
