Pop Matters

Rick Nelson: ‘You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself’

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“But it’s all right now, I’ve learned my lesson well. You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.” Those are lyrics from “Garden Party, a 1972 Top Ten single released by the late singer/actor Rick Nelson. The one-time teen idol who came to fame as the son in the popular 1950s TV show “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (featuring his real-life parents) would have turned 75 today. He wrote “Garden Party” in response to being booed by audience members at a 1971 oldies show in Madison Square Garden (a “Garden Party”).

I’m a Believer…in Pop Power!

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The year is 1967 and you’re just out of high school. You’re burning your draft card, experimenting with various herbs, and licking acid from blotter papers while listening to “Eight Miles High” and “Light My Fire.” And psychedelia-loving hipster that you are, you’re ready to pull your long hair out every time the opening organ chords of “I’m a Believer” came piping from the nearest radio. Forty-eight years ago this week, The Monkees’ single “I’m a Believer” was getting more airplay than any other song in the country. Thanks to 1,051,280 advance orders, it went gold within two days of its November 1966 release and spent seven weeks at the top of the charts, making it the biggest selling record of 1967. You couldn’t escape the sound. Free-form FM was still in its infancy, and most of the nation’s gargantuan cars came equipped with only an AM dial. So, even the most musically savvy flower children couldn’t escape the pop hits of the day – many of which they considered bubblegum music. But I was a mere child of 7, and I absolutely loved both bubblegum and pop hits!

The Leader of the ‘Doomed Love’ Singles

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Picture this: Good-girl Betty meets motorcycle bad-boy Jimmy at a candy store, where he’s obviously buying candy cigarettes. He turns around and smiles at her. You get the picture?  (Who knew that candy stores were such popular pick-up joints in 1964?) But is she really going out with him? Yep, the next thing you know, she takes Jimmy’s ring, wraps her legs ’round those velvet rims, and straps her hands ‘cross his engines (no, wait; that’s another song about an outcast luring a chick to his Harley).  Anyway, Daddy tells her to ditch the biker. Alas, the sad, misunderstood Jimmy drives off into the sunset to crash and burn. Oh, the drama, the poignancy, the sound effects! How we all longed for a Jimmy who would self-destruct for us! Yes, folks, I’m talking about the Shangri-Las’ doomed-love classic “Leader of the Pack,” which hit the #1 spot on the Billboard charts 50 years ago today.

The Heroine of Hang on Sloopy

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“Hang on, Snoopy, Snoopy hang on.” At least that’s what I thought the band was singing until I bought that seminal 1965 single by The McCoys, and realized that Snoopy was actually Sloopy. But who the heck was THAT? Obviously not a beagle who sat on a doghouse wearing a WWI flying helmet.