Boppin' the blues (Ricky Nelson) (LP 555 - 561)

Ricky Nelson Ricky (CD, MCPS, 1957) *****

Ricky Nelson Ricky Nelson (CD, MCPS, 1958) **** 

Ricky Nelson Ricky Sings Again (CD, MCPS, 1959) ****

Ricky Nelson Songs By Ricky (CD, MCPS, 1959) ****

Ricky Nelson More Songs By Ricky (CD, MCPS, 1960) *** 

Rick Nelson Rick is 21 (CD, MCPS, 1961) *** 

Rick Nelson Album Seven by Rick (CD, MCPS, 19) ***

Genre: Rock and Roll 

Places I remember: The Warehouse (Palmerston North)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Down The Line (from Ricky Nelson); One Minute To One (Songs By Ricky)

Gear costume: Poor Little Fool (from Ricky Nelson); Travelin' Man, Hello Mary Lou (both Ricky is 21)

Active compensatory factors: Ricky was certainly prolific, and extremely talented, but definitely poorly served by album titles. Yikes! These display a severe lack of imagination!

The debut establishes the classic Ricky sound - relaxed, smooth, assured, dreamy! It's 63 years old (like me) and still sounds terrific!

The quality is really high throughout these first four albums. I've struggled with the ratings to be honest -  Ricky Sings Again has many of the hits and Lonesome Town is on there as well but there are a couple of slower songs that sound like they were made for the slow dance segment at the senior prom, so four stars for these albums is about right for the first four.

By 1960 Ricky was looking to branch out into other areas so strings and less rock'n'roll arrangements enter the picture. There are still diamonds amongst each album but the all around entertainer was starting to replace the rock and roll kid.

Where do they all belong? I've already blogged about his albums with the Stone Canyon Band (here and here) that I have on vinyl, and so I have only Garden Party to go on CD to complete the Rick Nelson collection. It's worth the wait!