Archive for the ‘Ricky Nelson’ Category

Brian Hyland

Tuesday, November 26th, 2013

Listen: The Joker Went Wild / Brian Hyland
The

Dick Clark’s Caravan Of Stars, the branded road show which featured some of the most popular acts of the day, began in 1959. Negative speculation ran high. Despite owning his AMERICAN BANDSTAND media partner, so many hit makers all rolled into one evening appeared costly to outsiders. But of course with the most watched teen program in America as both your airplay vehicle and your leverage, the economics of this perfect storm streamlined itself into a goldmine.

On the night of the Kennedy Assassination, the 1963 Caravan Of Stars which included Brenda Holloway, Reparata & The Delrons, The Hondells and Brian Hyland was scheduled to play at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium.

After the event, stories began circulating that the gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, had tickets to the Caravan Of Stars concert. The manager of the Dallas record store that supposedly sold those tickets claims Oswald purchased two sometime before the shooting. However, there is no receipt to verify that Oswald actually had tickets, nor any other detail.

Regardless, Brian Hyland was one of the traveling entourage that worked his way through the crowd, getting a curbside view of the motorcade as it passed by their hotel, just three blocks before the shooting occurred.

By ’66, the world had changed drastically, and in some ways, so too had Brian Hyland. His early 60′s DA haircut had now grown into a contemporary Beatles fringe. Whether or not by design, the overall image update worked. Like Bobby Vee, the occasional single got airplay, and sounded perfectly in place on the radio.

Philips Records paired him with writer, arranger, producer Leon Russell who, as with Gary Lewis & The Playboys, merged then modern day west coast surf with Ricky Nelson influenced vocals to great success. ‘The Joker Went Wild’ made for a favorite spring ’66 anthem around our house. Mom, Dad and sister alike all giving it big thumbs up.

James Burton & Ralph Mooney

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Listen: Corn Pickin’ / James Burton & Ralph Mooney
Corn Pickin / James Burton & Ralph Mooney

I wonder if ‘Corn Pickin” ever got played on Country radio back when released in ’68. According to THE AIRHEADS RADIO SURVEY ARCHIVE, it got no Pop play whatsoever. By far not a complete overview of airplay, it’s a pretty good source, and really fun to troll about on if you have a few hours to kill. But be forewarned, you will need a few hours.

Recorded, most likely cheap and on the fast, his collaborative album with pedal steel player Ralph Mooney yielded this one single, which was dreadfully out of tune with the times. Being, I’m guessing, an LA music scene player/celebrity, and fresh from resident guitarist on SHINDIG (and member of house band The Shindogs), turns out ‘Corn Pickin” foresaw the whole country/rockabilly west coast fad by about fifteen years, when The Long Ryders and others would find it musically fashionable.

Much appreciated by guitar players universally, putting in his time with Ricky Nelson during the late 50′s, when you really had to be able to play if you wanted to make records, meant his tones and clarity were unmistakable.

Did you know James Burton’s an inductee of the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame? Did you even know there was a Rockabilly Hall Of Fame? I didn’t until tonight.

It’s a fun website. But until The Cramps are in (The Stray Cats and not The Cramps – huh?), it’s a little hard to take it seriously.

Ricky Nelson

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Listen: Lonesome Town / Ricky Nelson RickyNelsonLonesomeTown.mp3

Somewhere during their DATE WITH ELVIS / STAY SICK period, The Cramps were doing ‘Lonesome Town’ live. It was around then that I’d joined Island Records and rang Lux and Ivy to update them with my new contact info.

Ivy and I got into a long conversation about all kinds of trivia, which was not uncommon. She and Lux were always the most interesting and intriguing people. We would sometimes stay on the phone for hours.

As we were winding it down, I asked would she like any records from the label.

“What do you have?”

“There’s Robert Palmer, U2, Anthrax, Grace Jones, Julian Cope……”

“Hmmm. I’ve never heard of any of those people. Do you have any Ricky Nelson records?”