Generally a success profession is usually a heavy burden, particularly when it’s based on being one of many greatest heartthrobs in American pop music historical past.
After his huge success as first a radio and TV star as a baby, after which with the adulation of being the last word teen pin-up recording artist, Rick Nelson had been maturing as an artist and growing a country-influenced sound for a few years, when he arrived at a crossroads on October 15, 1971.
Nelson and his Stone Canyon Band had simply launched the Rudy The Fifth album, which narrowly missed the highest 200 chart within the US however was broadly acclaimed. As a measure of how far he’d come from the times of “Poor Little Fool,” “Hello Mary Lou” and numerous different hits of his youth, it included covers of the Rolling Stones‘ “Honky Tonk Women” and Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman” and “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.”
However, the star was nonetheless carefully recognized along with his previous, and took half within the seventh annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival live performance at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York. The invoice additionally featured such fellow long-runners as Chuck Berry, the Coasters, Gary “US” Bonds, Bo Diddley, the Shirelles, and Bobby Rydell.
Nelson performed his outdated hits, however didn’t need to be outlined by them, and dared to play new materials from Rudy The Fifth. Boos rang out from the rock‘n’roll crowd, though there’s a college of thought that they weren’t directed at Rick, however on the police for refusing to let followers on stage. Both manner, the artist would have the final chuckle. He was moved to jot down “Garden Party,” which particularly referred to the expertise and, in 1972, gave him a spectacular comeback hit.
“I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends,” Nelson wrote of the live performance. “They all knew my name…no one recognized me, I didn’t look the same.” He even included a selected reference to singing the Stones’ tune. “Played them all the old songs, thought that’s why they came/No one heard the music, we didn’t look the same/I said hello to Mary Lou, she belongs to me/When I sang a song about a honky-tonk, it was time to leave.”
Hearken to uDiscover Music’s official Ricky Nelson Finest Of playlist.
However Nelson couldn’t have been extra proper when he concluded on the tune’s memorable refrain: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.” He did simply that, and the tune wound up within the US High 10 — which, with wealthy irony, additionally contained new hits by fellow rock‘n’roll heroes Berry and Elvis Presley.
Purchase or stream the Rick Nelson album Rudy The Fifth.
