Ricky Nelson Sings Baker Knight (LP, 10inch)

Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson, born on 8 May 1940 in Teaneck, New Jersey, grew up in a seasoned show-business family. For more than fourteen years his parents Ozzie and Harriet appeared, together with sons David and Ricky, in the hugely popular television series in which the family played themselves under their own names. Ricky was thus already a national radio and television star when, at sixteen, he first stepped up to a studio microphone.

Behind the teen idol stood a genuine music lover: Ricky idolised Carl Perkins and drew his repertoire by choice from the rough-hewn, Southern-born likes of Johnny and Dorsey Burnette and Baker Knight. His first Top Ten hit was A Teenager's Romance (1957), his first number one Poor Little Fool (1958); classics such as Hello Mary Lou and the country success My Bucket's Got A Hole In It followed. Paul McCartney admitted that in England they simply took him for the famous one in the family.

Later he reverted to Rick Nelson and in 1969, with the Stone Canyon Band – featuring Randy Meisner and steel guitarist Tom Brumley – built a bridge between his roots and the emerging California country-rock. His live album Rick Nelson In Concert returned him to the charts. Throughout his life he struggled against the teen-idol cliché. On 31 December 1985 Ricky Nelson died in a plane crash while travelling from one show to the next.

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