Ricky Nelson Biography

Fast Facts

• Was a nationally ranked tennis player at 15
• Got his big music break performing a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" on the family TV series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1957
• His signature line from the TV series, "I don't mess around, boy," became a national catch phrase
• In a 1958 issue of Time Magazine, they coined the term "Teenage Idol" to describe him
• Was so popular, the Hollywood post office had a room just for his incoming fan mail
• Because his father used so many of the family's real-life adventures as plots for the TV show, young Ricky often cautioned his friends to be careful about what they said around Ozzie
• Fans booing his appearance at a 1971 Madison Square Garden oldies show, where he was playing his new songs and not the classics they had come to hear, inspired his chart-topping hit song "Garden Party
• " Was killed in a private-plane crash on December 31, 1985, on the way to a New Year's Eve concert in Dallas