by Kayla B Maxwell

Created on: July 30, 2008

American singer and musician Eric Hilliard "Ricky" Nelson was born on May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, New Jersey. He was the youngest son to Ozzie Nelson the leader of a big band and Harriet Hilliard Nelson the band's singer. Ricky and his brother David starred along with the rest of their family in a radio and television series called "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," from 1944 to 1954 on the radio, and 1952 to 1966 on television.

Ricky was the show's most popular character with his trademark line "I don't mess around, boy." This became a national catch phrase, and more and more of the show's plots became centered on Ricky's real life adventures. Some story lines would even include his natural athleticism. When he was 15 he ranked fifth in California among tennis players 15 and younger and at one time had the ambition to go professional.

In 1957 Ricky who was the first teen idol to use television to promote hit records began his music career in rock and roll. He recorded his debut single, the Fats Domino song "I'm Walkin," trying to impress a date that was a fan of Elvis Presley. After he performed his song on TV, it was a hit reaching #4 on the charts and selling over a million copies. Soon after that each episode of "Ozzie and Harriet" ended with a musical performance by Ricky.

In 1967 Ricky appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" after years of his father keeping him off of it in order to not enhance his public profile, but by this time his career was in limbo. He also appeared on other TV shows, in 1977 he guest hosted on "Saturday Night Live," where he proved to be a good sport by appearing in a "Twilight Zone" send up. During his "Twilight Zone" send up he'd find himself among the characters from other early sitcoms such as "Leave It to Beaver", "Father Knows Best", and "Make Room for Daddy."

From 1957 to 1962, Ricky had thirty Top 40 hits, more than any other at the time except for Elvis. Many of his records were double hits with both sides hitting the Billboard charts. When Billboard first introduced the Hot 100 chart in 1958 Ricky's single "Poor Little Fool" became the first song ever in the #1 position on that chart.

In addition to his recording career, he also appeared in movies. Some of his movies include western classic "Rio Bravo" (1959), "The Wackiest Ship in the Army" (1960), and "Love and Kisses" (1965).

In 1963 Rick signed a 20 year contract with Decca Records. But by the mid 1960's he began to move towards country music becoming a pioneer in the country rock genre. He was one of the early influences of the "California Sound". In 1972, he reached the Top 40 one last time with a song he wrote in response to an audience booing him when he tried playing new songs instead of just old ones.

In April 1963 Rick married Kristin Harmon the daughter of Football All-American Tom Harmon. They had four children a daughter, Tracy born October 25, 1963, twin sons Gunnar and Matthew born September 20, 1967, and a third son Sam born August 29, 1974. By the late 1970's he was heavily in debt and Kristin filed for divorce and took their four children. He then began using drugs, especially marijuana and eventually cocaine.

In 1985 he joined a rock tour of England. Since this tour was such a major success he decided to begin a duplicate tour in the US. While on tour his plane crashed in De Kalb, Texas, on December 31, 1985.

In 1987 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and also into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He also now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1515 Vine Street.

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