Track Listing

1. Honeycomb
2. Boppin' The Blues
3. Be-Bop Baby
4. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
5. Teenage Doll
6. If You Can't Rock Me
7. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
8. Baby I'm Sorry
9. Am I Blue?
10. I'm Confessin'
11. Your True Love
12. True Love
13. Be-Bop Baby (single version)
14. Have I Told You Lately Tha I Love You? (single version)
15. If You Can't Rock Me (alternate version)
16. Shirley Lee
17. Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You)
18. There's Good Rockin' Tonight
19. I'm Feelin' Sorry
20. Down The Line
21. Unchained Melody
22. I'm In Love Again
23. Don't Leave Me This Way
24. My Babe
25. I'll Walk Alone
26. There Goes My Baby
27. Poor Little Fool
28. Stood Up
29. Waitin' In School
30. Believe What You Say (single version)
31. My Bucket's Got A Hole In It

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127874 in Music
• Brand: Nelson
• Released on: 2001-07-23
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
Rock & roll was still a novelty and singles ruled the record market when 17-year-old Ricky Nelson released his debut album in 1957; it immediately jumped to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. That's why Capitol fleshes out some of its twofer releases of Nelson's Imperial albums with non-album hit singles. It's stunning to hear how well Nelson's debut and sophomore LPs hold up long after their original appearances. Aside from "Be Bop Baby" (and its "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" B-side), most of the cuts on Ricky are covers, including a wonderfully sedate take on Jimmie Rodgers's "Honeycomb," proving Nelson was indeed the Perry Como of early rockers. It also includes two Carl Perkins covers, including the definitive "Your True Love." The second LP displays growth and rocks harder, concluding with the sublime "Poor Little Fool." --Bill Holdship

Customer Reviews

Ricky's 1st
This cd contains Ricky Nelson's first two Imperial Records Albums, and finds his interest rooted firmly in Rockabilly. On his initial outing, "Ricky", we find what we can come to expect during his entire tenure at Imperial Records ('57 - '62), quality production, great material, and an outstanding band. Joe Maphis handles the lead guitar on this album nicely. On the 2nd album, "Ricky Nelson", we find more maturity in Rick's vocals and well as the development of his band, helmed by legendary rock-n-roll hall of famer, James Burton. Ricky's band, James Burton (Guitar), James Kirkland (Bass) & Richie Frost (Drums), should be counted among the best of the best. They became a unit that could stand-up next to, if not put to shame, any of their contemporaries

As with the other releases in this series, 4 cd's with 2 original albums on each, Capitol has done a great job with remastering. They have included several bonus tracks, original artwork and an outstanding essay by Jim Ritz.

Young Nelson!
This is a CD containing Ricky Nelson's first two albums both released in 1957. Nelson was only 17 at the time, and considering his young age, he sounds musically surprisingly mature on many of these early recordings. On the first album Nelson is backed by seasoned, but excellent studio-musicians like guitarist Joe Maphis and with the Jordanaires backing him vocally on several tracks. The songs are a mixture of Nelson's own rockabilly favourites and softer ballads to please a larger audience and his father Ossie, who played a big role during Nelson's early years as a recording artist. The bubblegum rocker "Be Bop Baby" which was his first Imperial hit-single is one my favourite early Nelson recordings; especially the slightly rougher single version. The Carl Perkins cover "Boppin'the Blues" is also quite good. Among the ballads "I'm Confessin" and "Honeycomb" stand out.

On his second album "Ricky Nelson", Rick is backed by a bunch of younger talented musicians with guitar legend James Burton as the most prominent; most solos though, were still played by Joe Maphis.

It contains a handful of pretty wild rockers featuring great playing by Nelson's "house band"; unfortunately Rick's voice often sound strained or even shrill. This may be due to poor production, but could also indicate that his voice wasn't yet ready for this kind of material. Interesting that one of these rockers, "There Goes My Bay", was written by guitarist James Burton and bassist James Kirkland.

Among the ballads "Someday" has become an all-time Nelson favourite. It was later released as a single and became a no. 9 hit in 1958. Sharon Sheeley's up-beat pop ballad would also be released as a single, and to Rick's big surprise become his first no 1 hit-single. Another outstanding track is Rick's own song "Don't Leave Me This Way" ( my personal favourite on the album ). This was the first recording of a Rick Nelson original and it's interesting that his song-writing is so close to that of Baker Knight's, who would contribute many songs to Nelson's later singles and albums; among them hits like "Lonesome Town", "Never Be Anyone Else" and "Sweeter Than You". A great melodic acoustic guitar-solo from Burton makes this track an even greater recording.

The song-writing Burnette brothers, who also were regular song contributers to Nelson, appear here as writers of the two bonus-track rockers "Waiting in School" and "Believe What You Say"; both hit-singles in 1958. On "Believe What You Say" Rick sounds much more confident than on the album's rockers, and the song features a terrific Burton guitar-solo.

All in all a fine release with informative 12 pages booklet.

Really Great
It's really about the collection of four cds, which contain all of Ricky's work for Imperial. I'm suprised they weren't released as a boxed set. The re-mastering was absoutely perfect. If these same people produce Rick's Decca work on CD, I'll buy it, even though I already have a cd version. The re-mastering is just that good. I have another cd of "Rick is 21", and it's not even close. An absoute MUST HAVE for Ricky/Rick Nelson fans!