“Your songs are what make you unique,” he had told them.
Their dad had learned that lesson the hard way.
Early in their father’s career, people wrote the songs for him.
It was a shock that when he tried performing new material at a concert at Madison Square Garden in 1971, he was booed off the stage for not performing his golden oldies, the twins said.
“They had come to see black-and-white Ricky, the guy on the hit TV series,” from the 1950s to the 1960s, Matthew Nelson said.
So he wrote the song “Garden Party” about that dismaying experience and the lyrics, “You can’t please everyone so you’ve got to please yourself.”
“It was the definitive comeback song,” he added.
His first million-seller in more than a decade, it hit No. 6 and went gold in 1972.
“He had to reinvent himself as a singer and songwriter, which is what he did,” Gunnar Nelson said.
He represented everything that was un-hip at the time, the boy next door, Gunnar Nelson said.
“He was frozen in time and represented that era in America,” he added.
“But in ‘Garden Party,’ he made the statement ‘I am what I am.’”
And he had plenty of success, his sons said. He was inducted into the Rockabilly and Rock ’n’ Roll hall of fames, and has two stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
He was the only artist to have a No. 1 song, “Poor Little Fool,” No. 1 movie, “Rio Bravo,” and No. 1 TV show, “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet,” in the same week.
Then, when the twins’ rock band Nelson had a No. 1 song in the United States with “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love & Affection,” written by the twins, the family earned mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only family in entertainment history with three generations of No. 1 hit makers.
The band, Nelson, has five Top 40 Billboard hits, four No. 1 MTV videos and has sold more than 6.5 million albums worldwide.
Infobox
WHAT: Ricky Nelson Remembered concert tour
WHEN: Thursday, the Brixton in Redondo Beach; Friday, the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills; and Saturday, the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano
TICKETS: www.RickyNelsonRemembered.com
