03/31/2022
Photo Finish #1
Rick Nelson (Photo by Chris Walter)
lostcanyonsla writes about the life of a teenage Idol.
Child star, pop idol and early pioneer of the ‘California Sound’, Rick Nelson packed a lot into his short 45 years of life. Ricky Nelson (as he was then known) became a household name at age 8 starring alongside his parents and brother in the seminal 1950s sitcom “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” based around the Nelson family’s real-life home in the Hollywood Hills, near Runyon Canyon. Nelson’s TV fame eventually propelled him into a career in music after he asked his father to let him record a song to impress a girl at Hollywood High School, and instead, Ozzie had him sign a record deal. In 1957 he released his first single, a cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walking” and “A Teenager’s Romance” to instant success and fan mania. Life Magazine coined the phrase ‘teen idol’ to describe him, but friends at the time remember Nelson really loved rockabilly music and would walk down to Wallich’s Music Studio in Hollywood after school to listen to Carl Perkins records. Nelson himself said, “I wanted to sound like him as much as I could.” By the mid-60s, Nelson was ready to throw off his teen idol status and in 1969 formed country-rock group The Stone Canyon Band, named after Stone Canyon Road that dissects through the hills of Bel Air. Joining Nelson were soon-to-be Eagle, Randy Meisner and his former bandmates from The Poor, Allen Kemp and Pat Shanahan, along with steel guitarist Tom Brumley from Buck Owen’s band. They released a successful live album “In Concert at the Troubadour, 1969” followed by a cover of Bob Dylan’s "She Belongs to Me" and 1972's "Garden Party", which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. Tragically Nelson died in a plane crash in 1985, aged just 45 years old. He left behind four children, including twins Gunnar and Matthew who later formed the band, Nelson. But the final word on Rick’s long and varied career can go to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty who said, “I’ve always considered Rick equal to the Sun Records’ artists. Maybe he came from Hollywood, but the sound was strictly Memphis.”
📷 Chris Walter, Michael Ochs Archive, Getty Images
