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Rock and Roll History – Fifty Years Ago

Ricky Nelson (centre) and his band.

The month of August 1958 was significant for the fact that Billboard published its first “Hot 100” chart which still remains the benchmark for the popularity of songs in the US. The first number one on this chart leads nicely into a brief look at one of Rock and Rolls greats. Fifty years ago, in the Aug. 4, 1958, issue, Billboard launched a revolutionary chart called the Hot 100. After nearly two decades of tracking songs by sales or separately by plays (on jukeboxes and on radio), the Hot 100 was the first list to measure popularity by incorporating both radio play and sales. Scoring the chart’s inaugural No. 1 was Ricky Nelson with“Poor Little Fool” which was written by Sharon Sheeley, who was rocker Eddie Cochran’s girlfriend at the time.

Ricky Nelson’s career began in television where he and his older brother David acted out their real-life roles as the sons of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. For a period of years, beginning in 1957, when Ricky was sixteen, each episode would conclude with a song by Ricky Nelson and his band.

Ricky’s first hit at the age of sixteen was promoted through the TV show. “A Teenager’s Romance” backed with Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” made the Top Five shortly after the single’s release in April 1957, instantly launching Nelson’s musical career.

After his No.1 with “Poor Little Fool”, he continued his success on the charts with a song which became his signature tune, “Hello Mary Lou”, written by Gene Pitney. Then followed “Travelin’ Man,” also reaching No.1. During a three-year period from 1957 through 1959, Nelson owned the pop charts, placing 19 songs in the Top Forty for a total of nearly 200 combined weeks.

His hits continued into the 1960s but when they stopped charting he resisted the idea of becoming a nostalgia act, pointedly addressing the issue in the song “Garden Party”. The lyrics were based on his experience appearing at a rock revival show at Madison Square Garden. Nelson played his newer material and the crowd, expecting him to play his old standards, responded negatively. The song became one of the biggest hits of his career reaching No.6 in October 1972.

Rick Nelson continued to play live and was performing up to 200 times a year into the 1980s. His life ended tragically in 1985 when his tour plane caught fire and crashed near a highway in DeKalb, Texas, killing him and six others.

Recommended Reading

Teenage Idol: The Complete Biography of Rick Nelson.
Bashe, Philip. New York: Hyperion, 1992.

Essential Songs

Poor Little Fool, Hello Mary Lou, Travelin’ Man, Garden Party, I’m Walkin’