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Ricky Nelson, the super pop star and teen idol of the 1950s and 1960s, although hugely popular in those years, was one of those entertainers who are more admired for their popularity than their talent. He was a fair guitarist and, even by today's low standards for voices, a so-so singer.

His flat, nasal, voice, although beloved by teenage girls of the time, doesn't get many requests to play on Top Twenty stations today. However, as they say at the bank, you can't argue with excess. Like Sinatra and the bobbysoxers of a generation earlier, Ricky was the creation of clever hype by his handlers.

Nelson's aw-shucks, boy-next-door image from the most popular sitcom of the time, featuring his actual family, "The Nelsons", gave him a huge kick-start right to the top of the then pop record and performance business. Talent? Who cares if he has talent? He's cute!

Eric Hilliard Nelson was born in 1940 to a nationally popular musical couple. Harriett Hilliard was an actress and singer married to Big Band leader Ozzie Nelson. When the family first starred in "The Nelsons" sitcom from 1944 to 1954, they were on radio. In those days, they were a huge hit, right up there in popularity with Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Red Skelton, the Lone Ranger and other big stars of the pre-TV era.

When the show became one of the first family sitcoms to beam out in glorious black and white from ten-inch Philco TVs in 1952, Ricky and his older brother, David, replaced the child actors who had been doing the radio voices. The show ran for 15 years, and Ricky, the real and TV boy, grew from a cute eight-year-old to a handsome young man of 23.

After playing the wise-cracking younger brother for the first seven years, the writers of the show wrote in situations where the 15-year-old played drums and sang. When the performance helped boost the ratings of the show, especially among teen girls, Ricky sang, played drums and plucked his guitar in many more episodes, usually ending the show with a song. In 1957, he introduced on the show and recorded his version of Fats Domino's, "I'm Walkin'.

It became an immediate million-seller and appeared high up in all the music charts, rivaling the statistics of the then champs, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. For seven glorious years, Ricky matched or outsold them all, and racked up more than 30 Top-40 selling chart hits, including a double classic, "Hello, Mary Lou" with the flip side an equally popular "Travelin' Man". The music industry's Billboard Magazine voted Nelson's

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