All Shook Up (Pivotal Moments in American History) by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2003-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

Ozzie and Harriet Nelson with sons and TV co-stars Ricky (center) and David. Ricky’s onscreen rock solos were designed to show that the music was no threat to sitcom family values. (Ralph Crane/Timepix)

Ozzie and Ricky bickered and battled constantly, over the length of the boy’s hair, his poor performance in school, and his disreputable friends, but they did not fight over rock ’n’ roll. Ozzie was a shrewd businessman, with an instinct for the main chance. A former band-leader, he understood the extraordinary popularity of the music with young audiences. In January 1957, for example, Ozzie watched Tommy Sands play an Elvis Presley–like character in The Singing Idol on Kraft Television Theater. “Teen-Age Crush,” the song Sands introduced on the made-for-TV movie, zoomed to number 3 on Billboard’s charts. In the right setting, Ozzie concluded, rock ’n’ roll could be more innocent than insolent. He treated rock ’n’ roll on his show as the special property of teenagers. In one episode, twenty-something David arrives at a costume party dressed as Yul Brynner’s character in the Broadway hit The King and I, while Ricky impersonates Elvis. In another, David (who actually preferred the Modern Jazz Quartet and Frank Sinatra) listens to classical music in the living room while rhythm and blues blares in Ricky’s bedroom.

When Ozzie found out that Ricky had performed for a girlfriend in a record-your-own-voice booth, he arranged for his son to make his professional debut as a singer. Ricky recorded three songs, “You’re My One and Only Love,” “A Teenager’s Romance,” and the Fats Domino hit “I’m Walkin,’” the only tune Ricky knew how to play on the guitar. “It was scary,” Ricky recalled. “I had gone straight from singing in the bathroom to the recording studio.” Satisfied with the sessions, Ozzie decided to have Ricky perform on Ozzie and Harriet. On April 10, 1957, Americans were introduced to Ricky Nelson, the rock ’n’ roll singer. In an episode set on an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic, Ricky sits in as a drummer with the ship’s orchestra. Ozzie gets the band-leader’s permission for his son to sing a rhythm and blues tune, and Ricky, clad in a black tuxedo, lip-synchs “I’m Walkin’.” Almost immediately, tens of thousands of letters poured in to the television show. Three hundred Ricky Nelson fan clubs were formed. Released three weeks later, “I’m Walkin’” made it into the Top Twenty while the flip side, “A Teenager’s Romance,” cracked the Top Ten. Several more pop singles followed, as did an album, released in November, which proved to be a chart-topper as well. Each song, of course, provided an occasion for a show-closing performance on Ozzie and Harriet, with pretty girls smiling and swaying to the music, and an opportunity, as well, to assure adults that the music was safe, polished, and, above all, appropriate for teenagers to listen to. While Ricky sang “Your True Love,” crusty, gravel-voiced, veteran character actor Edgar Buchanan told Ozzie, “By George, I like that rock and roll beat.” Ozzie himself sang “Baby, I’m Sorry” right after Ricky performed the song on the show.

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