Man that is an oldie. BTW, wasn’t it Ricky Nelson then? When did he change his name to Rick?
When his old man, Ozzie Nelson, found out they could save a few bucks on labels, posters and printed matter with one less letter in the name.
Not really. I think he just got tired of using the diminutive version of his name, just like all the "Jimmys" I knew, became "Jims".
Here's an early photo when he was definitely still "Ricky"
I think he outgrew using the diminutive form of his name...same way as when we're growing up and "Jimmys" become "Jims" and "Bobbys" become "Bobs", but on the Nelson Family TV show, in this picture at least, he was still "Ricky"
From RickyNelson.co.uk:
“In 1961 his 6th album, Rick is 21, declared to the world that the teenage idol was now a man with a letter less in his name but with a new woman at his side. Kristin Harmon had first met Rick when she was thirteen. In the proceeding years she had become an attractive 16 year old and Rick began to date her. The Nelsons and the Harmons were family friends and the blossoming relationship between the pair was met with approval on both sides. By 1963 they were married and Kris, together with her new sister-in-law June Blair, became the on-screen wives of the Nelson boys. Also that year, Rick’s contract with Imperial ended and he signed with Decca Records for a then un-heard of 20 year contract.
In February 1967, the final episode of The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet aired. After over 22 years on radio and television and having seen the boys grow from pre-teens to married men, the world said goodbye to the family a generation had grown up with. On top of that his music was no longer selling as well as it had. His first few albums for Decca continued to ride the charts, but the sixties was proving to be a time when many in American music were displaced by the sudden and all consuming rise in popularity of the English sound, led by the Beatles. Like many of his contemporaries, Elvis included, Rick began to find it increasingly difficult to get his songs played on the radio. Subsequently he began to search for new directions to take his music.”
Try being a “Jimmy” to your parents and their friends for much of your life. He wanted, far more than many other things, to escape that degrading dimunitive.
I believe it was about the time he went to a garden party. Our Ricky was all grown up.