Song:Believe What You Say
Album:Greatest Hits
Ricky Nelson was one of the biggest stars of the late 50s when he sang on his dad's sitcom. He was lumped in with the other teen idols but today his music holds up very well. So I think he's underrated. Believe What You Say was one of his early hits. He was born May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, NJ and of course his parents were bandleader Ozzie Nelson and his wife singer Harriet Hilliard. The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet was a very popular radio show and it became a TV show in 1952. Ricky and his brother David were regulars on the show. Ozzie Nelson used the show to promote Ricky's singing career starting in 1957 when Ricky performed Fats Domino's I'm Walkin'. Ozzie made sure Ricky sang great songs Believe What You Say was written by Johnny and Dorsey Burnette. And he also got great musicians to work with Ricky. That's guitarist James Burton in the video. Also, Ricky never appeared on American Bandstand or The Ed Sullivan Show. You had to watch The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet to see him. Believe What You Say reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. It wasn't his biggest hit. Poor Little Fool was his first #1 hit. He had thirty top 40 hits from 1957-62. By the mid-60s, he had changed his name to Rick Nelson and went towards the country music market. The teen idol thing dogged him for most of his career. There was certainly more to him than that. This comp has all his hits and a bonus DVD. Of course Rick Nelson made his big comeback in 1972 with Garden Party and as I'm sure most folks are aware, he died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1985 at age 45. Here's Ricky Nelson performing Believe What You Say 1959.
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