YEAR
1987
INDUCTED BY
John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
CATEGORY
Performers
Who would’ve thought a teen heartthrob could rock out?
Although he was known as a teen idol, Ricky Nelson was not just another pretty face. He jumped from a career in TV into the music world, where he blew skeptical rock and rollers away with his own rock chops.
Ricky Nelson
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Michael Hill
Ozzie and Harriet Nelson helped usher the nation into the television age as graciously as if they were simply showing guests into their home, taking their popular radio show of the Forties, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, before the TV cameras in the Fifties.
It’s fitting that their younger son, Ricky, who was growing up practically in the country’s living rooms, would help usher in the age of rock and roll. Legend has it that the sixteen -year-old Ricky originally wanted to cut records because a girlfriend at the time expressed more interest in Elvis Presley than in him.
