Be-Bop Baby/Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson, or Rick Nelson (born Eric Hilliard Nelson; May 8, 1940 - December 31, 1985), was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor. He placed fifty-three songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1957 and 1973, including nineteen top-ten hits, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 21, 1987.

Nelson played clarinet and drums in his tweens and early teens, learned the rudimentary guitar chords, and vocally imitated his favorite Sun Records rockabilly artists in the bathroom at home or in the showers at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. He was strongly influenced by the music of Carl Perkins and once said he tried to emulate the sound and the tone of the guitar break in Perkins's March 1956 Top Ten hit, "Blue Suede Shoes".

At sixteen, Nelson wanted to impress a friend who was an Elvis Presley fan, and, although he had no record contract at the time, told her that he, too, was going to make a record. With his father's help, Nelson secured a one-record deal with Verve Records, a fledgling label looking for a young and popular personality who could sing or be taught to sing. On March 26, 1957, Nelson recorded the Fats Domino standard "I'm Walkin'" and "A Teenager's Romance" (both released in late April 1957 as his first single), and "You're My One and Only Love".

In early summer 1957, Ozzie Nelson pulled his son from Verve after disputes about royalties, and signed him to a lucrative five-year deal with Imperial Records that gave him approval over song selection, sleeve artwork, and other production details. Ricky's first Imperial single, "Be-Bop Baby", generated 750,000 advance orders, sold over one million copies, and reached number three on the charts. Nelson's first album, Ricky, was released in October 1957 and hit number one before the end of the year.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• rockabilly
• vocal
• Ricky
• Nelson
• Pearl
• Lendhurst

[TheDJGrandPa]

Ricky is as good at singing as his father was rich.

I <3 Ricky, I was surprised to see that he landed on the #90 spot on Rolling Stone's #100 Greatest Artists, but I guess it was more for his later Hippie stuff.

[CookiesDen2]

Thank you for watching and commenting. I appreciate it.

[CountryWesternGal]

Awesome Upload

Lovely Tune......

Two Thumb's Up

~Love Patricia~

[CookiesDen2]

Thank you Patricia. I appreciate it very much.

Rey

[mountain824]

Fantastic song and video! I loved it. thanks. maria x

[CookiesDen2]

Thank you Maria. I'm happy you enjoyed this one and appreciate your lovely comment.

Rey

[karlyngve1]

One of the icons...

[CookiesDen2]

Thank you so much Frank for the wonderful comment on this post. I'm happy you greatly enjoyed this Ricky classic.

Rey

[CookiesDen2]

Hi Sonja -

Thank you so much for your lovely comment and for playlisting this post. I really appreciate it.

Hugs,

Rey

[CookiesDen2]

:-)