History Trivia / RickyNelson

* FollowTheLeader: Ostensibly he was this to Music/ElvisPresley in his early career, though Nelson actually considered Presley's [[Music/SamPhillips Sun Records]] labelmate Music/CarlPerkins his primary influence. Nelson and Presley eventually became friends, and Elvis hired Nelson's former guitarist James Burton for his touring band in TheSeventies. Nelson was also friendly with Colonel Tom Parker, hiring Parker's protégé Greg [=McDonald=] as his manager in TheSeventies. There was even some talk of Parker managing Nelson full-time after Elvis died.

** The FaceOnTheCover photo for the 1971 album ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_the_Fifth Rudy the Fifth]]'' was taken by ''Series/AdamTwelve'''s Kent [=McCord=], who'd played one of Rick's frat brothers on ''Ozzie & Harriet''.

* MissingEpisode: His 1978 album ''Back to Vienna'' was rejected by his then-label Creator/EpicRecords. On it he'd worked with famed rock RenaissanceMan Al Kooper (most famously the organist on "[[Music/Highway61Revisited Like a Rolling Stone]]"), but everyone who's heard the album has described it as "an Al Kooper album with Rick Nelson on lead vocals", since the mix of ProgressiveRock, {{Jazz}} and {{Soul}} influences, with eccentric lyrics, was much more in line with Kooper's past work than anything Nelson had ever tried. All the album tracks were given a BoxedSet release decades later.

* DiedDuringProduction: He signed with Curb Records in late 1985 and was in the midst of working on a new album at the time of the fatal plane crash. A {{Rockabilly}} throwback album, it's never been released, but three of the songs have leaked on bootleg recordings, including a CoverVersion of "[[Music/LetItBe One After 909]]".

** He signed with Curb Records in late 1985 and was working on a new album at the time of the fatal plane crash (again, a planned {{Rockabilly}} revival project). Given Curb's success in the CountryMusic field, and the trend of rockers from TheFifties and TheSixties reviving their careers in country at the time, it's easy to picture Nelson sustaining a country career had he lived.

* UncreditedRole: The Jordanaires did backing vocals on a bunch of his hits, but, but due to their connection with Music/ElvisPresley and Ricky's friendship with Elvis, there was an agreement not to credit them.

* He was also looking to revive his acting career before he died, filming several TV pilots that didn't get picked up, but for which test audiences responded positively to him, suggesting that Nelson just needed to find the right vehicle for a small-screen comeback.

** He signed with Curb Records in late 1985 and was working on a new album at the time of the fatal plane crash (again, a planned {{Rockabilly}} revival project). Given Curb's success in the CountryMusic field, and the trend of rockers from TheFifties and TheSixties reviving their careers in country at the time, it's easy to picture Nelson sustaining a country career had he lived.

* FollowTheLeader: Ostensibly he was this to Elvis in his early career, though Nelson actually considered Presley's [[Music/SamPhillips Sun Records]] labelmate Music/CarlPerkins his primary influence. Nelson and Presley eventually became friends, and Elvis hired Nelson's former guitarist James Burton for his touring band in TheSeventies.

** He signed with Curb Records in late 1985 and was working on a new album at the time of the fatal plane crash, (again, a planned {{Rockabilly}} revival project). Given Curb's success in the CountryMusic field, and the trend of rockers from TheFifties and TheSixties reviving their careers in country at the time, it's easy to picture Nelson sustaining a country career had he lived.

** He signed with Curb Records in late 1985 and was working on a new album at the time of the fatal plane crash, reportedly a {{Rockabilly}} revival album. Given Curb's success in the CountryMusic field, and the trend of rockers from TheFifties and TheSixties reviving their careers in country at the time, it's easy to picture Nelson sustaining a country career had he lived.

** He also didn't like the proto-RockStarSong "Teen Age Idol", feeling like the lyrics came off as bragging, but Ozzie insisted he release it as a single.

** The FaceOnTheCover photo for the 1971 album ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_the_Fifth Rudy the Fifth]]'' was taken by ''Series/AdamTwelve'' co-star Kent [=McCord=], a good friend of Nelson's.

** A stark 1958 rendition of "Gloomy Sunday" that Rick's associates considered his single greatest vocal performance didn't get released because Ozzie thought the song was too morbid. It finally saw the light of day after Rick's death.

* RevivalByCommercialization: "Lonesome Town" got a big boost when it was included on the ''Film/PulpFiction'' soundtrack. It's also a popular CoverVersion choice, done by everyone from Music/TheCramps to Music/PaulMcCartney to Music/BobDylan.

* CreatorBacklash: He never really liked "Poor Little Fool", his first #1 hit, only recording it because songwriter Sharon Sheeley told him that Music/ElvisPresley had been planning to record it before he left to join the Army (not true; the story was a BatmanGambit by Sheeley to convince Nelson to do the song), and hiding it away as an album cut, only to have some [=DJs=] in the Midwest discover it and start playing it. He refused to do the song on ''Series/TheAdventuresOfOzzieAndHarriet''.
* FollowTheLeader: Ostensibly he was this to Elvis in his early career, though Nelson actually considered Presley's [[Music/SamPhillips Sun Records]] labelmate Music/CarlPerkins his primary influence.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: The story that Nelson's fatal plane crash happened because he was freebasing cocaine on the plane came about because of an early news story about the crash that said that investigators were considering it as a possibility. No evidence was ever discovered for it, and the investigation concluded that the cause was the plane's faulty heater catching on fire (both pilots survived and gave detailed, but contradictory, accounts about the heater being on fire). The one grain of truth in the legend was that the autopsy of Nelson's body found a small amount of cocaine in his system.

* HeAlsoDid: The FaceOnTheCover photo for the 1971 album ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_the_Fifth Rudy the Fifth]]'' was taken by ''Series/AdamTwelve'' co-star Kent [=McCord=], a good friend of Nelson's.