August 22, 2007 Earworm

Teen idol Friday continues with the one who started it all, Rick(y) Nelson. His music has often been dismissed by music critics with accusations of crass opportunism and flesh peddling. When faced with arguments to the contrary, it's then noted - usually in a huff - that he couldn't really sing. Right or wrong, this a mute point because everyone knows this is not a pre-requisite of rock and roll. It all reeks of sour geek grapes because the only thing Ricky Nelson is guilty of is being from a wealthy California family, being a child star, and far worse, of possessing a set of blue eyes best experienced at half mast and a bottom lip that appeared to be created for nibbling. Simply put, he was heart poundingly pretty.

Ricky never was, nor would have claimed to have been, an artist; he was a musician. Born into a musical family, he was adept at the guitar, clarinet, and drums before his pop music career began as a lie told at the end of date when his girl all but dismissed his advances in favor of the latest Elvis single on the radio. Trying to soothe his sixteen year old ego, he informed his date that he, too, was making a record. A few months later, on April 10, 1957, the world watched a terrified Ricky debut his cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walking" and a star was born and the wordy "dreamy" was redefined.

By the end of the decade, Ricky had placed nine singles in the top twenty with all but one of them backed with a self charting b-side and sold millions of records. Most importantly, he had dismissed the idea of studio musicians backing him and formed a band that would remain a unit for ten years, ensuring a continuity of sound that was based upon the music and not a producer. This would prove to be crucial in 1959 when he felt like tampering with the idea of what a Ricky Nelson record sounded like and recorded the steamy "I Wanna Be Loved", a horny cousin to Peggy Lee's version of "Fever". Full of finger snaps and tom toms, a sleazy guitar that has to have been played by Billy Strange, Darlene Love and The Blossoms wailing like bitches in heat, and a lascivious growl from Ricky, this was no one's "Be-Bob Baby". Perhaps unsure as to how the public would take the notion of Ricky on the prowl, "I Wanna Be Loved" was issued as the b-side to a more typical Ricky rave-up, "Mighty Good". But Ricky was not the only one growing up and "I Wanna Be Loved" became the side of choice, peaking at #20 as it's flip topped out at #38. And while it may not have
stopped the perception of Ricky being dreamy, it surely had to have
altered the idea of what those dreams could contain.