“Travelin’ Man,” the tune that turned the second and ultimate US No.1 single for one in all pop’s authentic heartthrobs, Ricky Nelson, was one which was actually rescued from the rubbish can. Not solely that, it’s a quantity with connections to each Sam Cooke and the early, session-playing days of Glen Campbell.
Nelson recorded the tune, written by singer-composer-producer Jerry Fuller, on March 13, 1961 and noticed it enter the charts only a few weeks later. But it surely solely reached Nelson by full likelihood, beginning a inventive relationship that noticed him report many additional Fuller compositions, together with the High 10 hits “Young World” and “It’s Up To You.”
Within the documentary The Wrecking Crew: The Untold Story of Rock & Roll Heroes, Fuller informed the unlikely story of how “Travelin’ Man” reached Ricky within the first place, and the way Campbell actually performed a component in it.
‘I took a world atlas…’
“I was sitting in a park in Hollywood…and I didn’t play an instrument, I just beat on my dashboard, and hummed the melody,” he stated. “And it’s a fairly simple song, but I took a world atlas, and I looked up what they called a girl in Germany, and Mexico…and I made a song out of it. ‘A girl in every port’ was the idea.”
Fuller, who had had some early success as an artist within the late Fifties and early 60s, was an avowed fan of Sam Cooke. “After I finished the song, I called up Glen Campbell and he and I went into the studio,” he continued. “Glen performed guitar and I sang the factor like Sam Cooke. So we took the demo on somewhat acetate as much as J.W. Alexander, who was Sam Cooke’s supervisor. I had met J.W. earlier than, by way of a pal, and he stated ‘I’ll give it a pay attention once I get the prospect.’
“He obviously played it right after we left, because Joe Osborn, who was Ricky’s bass player, heard it through the wall. He went next door and said ‘J.W., do you have that ‘traveling’ song you were just playing?’ And he said ‘Oh yeah, Joe, you can have it. And he reached in the trash and pulled out the demo. He gave it to Joe and he…put it in Rick’s pile, and Rick liked it, so they recorded it. And it sold like six million records right off the bat.”
‘Ricky just cut your song’
When Osborn later referred to as Fuller to inform him “Ricky just cut your song,” the author’s reply was “Ricky who? And what song?” Fuller remembered: “He stated ‘Rick Nelson, he just cut your ‘Travellin’ Man.’ I stated ‘No kiddin’, how’d he get it?’ And he informed me the story.
“He stated ‘Ricky was wondering if you’ve acquired any extra songs.’ I stated ‘Yeah, I’ve acquired about 80 of them, I’ll get ’em over to you.’ And Ricky needed to know who sang the backgrounds on the demos. I stated ‘That was me and Glen Campbell and Dave Burgess.’
“He’d already recorded ‘Travellin’ Man’ and he had the Jordanaires singing background on that, but from that moment on, even on stuff I didn’t write, Ricky hired us to do the background vocals. So from that moment on, we took over where the Jordanaires left off, and did a lot of his records.”
“Travellin’ Man” hit the Sizzling 100 on April 24, 1961 and was No.1 by the Could 29 chart, whereas its celebrated flipside “Hello Marylou” reached No.9 in its personal proper. That facet turned the lead monitor within the UK, and went to No.2. He went on to be quick associates with Campbell, guested on Glen’s TV present and have become his {golfing} buddy.
Hearken to uDiscover Music’s Ricky Nelson Greatest Of playlist.
Fuller went on to jot down and produce a variety of different artists, together with the Knickerbockers’ 1965 hit “Lies” and the late 60s run of hits by Gary Puckett and the Union Hole, amongst them the worldwide No.1 “Young Girl.” However his profession might need been very totally different if that “Travellin’ Man” demo hadn’t been lifted out of the trash.
Purchase or stream “Travelin’ Man” on the Rick Is 21 album, twinned with its 1960 predecessor Extra Songs By Ricky.
