Remembering Ricky, celebrating Rick

Life Magazine coined the term "teen idol" for a cover story about him. He made the first rock videos (albeit in black-and-white). He was the first rock star to sell a million singles in one week, an early demonstration of television's power to market music.

When Elvis was king, he was crown prince.

And yet Ricky Nelson seldom gets his due as one of the prime figures in early rock history.

His legacy will get a very deserved boost on Tuesday with the release of "Ricky Nelson: Greatest Hits" on CD and "Ricky Nelson Sings" on DVD, both companion pieces to an hourlong PBS documentary.

The recording, video and documentary commemorate Nelson's death 20 years ago in an airplane crash in Texas, caused by a faulty cabin heater that started a fire, on Dec. 31, 1985. He and his band were en route to Dallas to play a New Year's Eve show.

Nelson's story is one of great success but also great disappointment. He had 35 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and sold some 35 million recordings from the late '50s to the mid-'60s.

He was largely unable, however, to move from teen idol to successful adult musician.

Victim of success

He wasn't taken seriously, perhaps because he grew up as the cute, wisecracking kid on the family sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet," starting on radio in 1944 and transferring to TV from 1952 to 1966.

With the whole nation watching, he matured into a startlingly handsome young man, with big blue eyes, a pouty mouth and a mound of hair not unlike Presley's. While his good looks helped him become a teen idol, ironically they worked against him when he grew older and wanted to be taken more seriously.

While his first recording, a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walking," was made as a lark, apparently to impress a girlfriend, Ozzie Nelson was sharp enough to realize that teen girls would watch Ricky perform it on the TV show. The broadcast, on April 10, 1957, was more successful than expected, as the single went on to sell a million copies in a week.

A new rock star was born.

Nelson signed the biggest recording contract up to that time (bigger than Elvis') and began making recordings in earnest, with his father, a former bandleader and recording star, seeing to it that everything was done first class.

Not only did Ricky utilize the most talented songwriters and recording-studio professionals, he hired the best musicians. Key to young Nelson's success was his partnering with an equally young, gifted guitarist named James Burton. Together they made some of the most memorable recordings of the early rock era.

The 25-cut "Greatest Hits" CD includes many of them, such as "Travelin' Man" (for which Ozzie Nelson made a conceptual video, probably the first one ever), "Poor Little Fool," "Lonesome Town" and "Be Bop Baby."

Autobiographical hit

It also includes Rick Nelson's masterpiece, "Garden Party," his last hit, which reached No. 6 in 1972, his first charted single after a 10-year drought.

He wrote the song following a nostalgia concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, at which he was booed when he tried to sing his new songs. "Garden Party" delineates how he was respected by fellow musicians, including Bob Dylan and John Lennon, but couldn't get a break from the fans, who wanted him to remain cute little Ricky rather than accept him as the mature Rick Nelson. "You can't please everyone," he wisely sings, "so you've got to please yourself."

The DVD is mostly made up of his singing appearances on "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet," often with Burton at his side. For those who remember the TV show, it's a kick to see these performances again, especially such fine ones as "Waitin' in School," "Never Be Anyone Else But You," "It's Late," "Young World" and "Tryin' to Get To You."

They show that Nelson developed into a fine singer and guitarist, and could charm the ladies into screaming by just slowly blinking his baby blues, one of his trademarks.

The DVD has two more of those early videos than the PBS documentary, as well as bonus features, including Rick's three sons, twins Gunnar and Matthew and the youngest, Sam, joining Burton for a fine version of "Garden Party," and Burton and the twins doing several other of Ricky's hits.

Appreciation for Ricky Nelson was eloquently expressed by Dylan in his autobiography, "Chronicles Volume One," in which he wrote, "His voice was sort of mysterious and made you fall into a certain mood."

Nelson was also honored in the 50th Anniversary of Rock issue of Rolling Stone in April, in which he was profiled in a section called "The Immortals: The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time." His piece was written by John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival. "He just had it all — the sound, the look," he writes. "Yes, he was beautiful, but let's not forget he was also very talented."

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com