Ricky Nelson scored the first ever number one on Billboard's Hot 100
When Billboard launched its Hot 100 chart in 1958, the first song to top it was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson, a teenager America already knew from his family's sitcom. He had been playing himself on radio since age eight, and went on to place 54 songs on the charts.
Christened Eric Hilliard Nelson, he arrived in Teaneck, New Jersey, on May 8, 1940, as the second son of the entertainers Ozzie and Harriet Nelson; his older brother was the actor David Nelson. A small, anxious child with severe asthma, he stayed with his grandmother in Tenafly while his parents worked in Hollywood, joining them in 1942 at their Los Angeles home. Red Skelton's producer John Guedel, who found him an odd, shy, likeable boy, created The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for his parents in 1944. Child actors first played the sons, until the real Dave and Ricky took over on February 20, 1949.
The show moved to television, and in 1957 Ricky began singing on it, released his first single and topped the album chart with Ricky. Poor Little Fool followed in 1958, and the next year he starred with John Wayne and Dean Martin in Howard Hawks's western Rio Bravo, earning a Golden Globe nomination as a promising newcomer. Between 1957 and 1973 he charted 54 songs, 18 of them reaching the top ten including the chart-opener.
When the sitcom ended in 1966 he made guest appearances and drifted from teen pop toward country and then country rock. Several albums with session players flopped, but forming the Stone Canyon Band in 1969 revived his fortunes, helped by a live album recorded at the Troubadour, and his 1972 single Garden Party surprised everyone by reaching number six. The comeback faded when his label was bought and folded, and by the late 1970s he had been dropped.
He married Sharon Kristin Harmon in 1963, and they divorced in 1982; their four children include actress Tracy Nelson and the musician twins Gunnar and Matthew. Nelson died in a plane crash on December 31, 1985. On January 21, 1987, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him, and TV Guide ranked him 49th among its greatest TV stars in 1996.
Source: Ricky Nelson
