A Teenager’s Romance/Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson played as important a role as Pat Boone in making rock ‘n’ roll acceptable to middle America. When he sang Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin'” on The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, he not only created an instant demand for Ricky Nelson records, but set an example for all the upstanding, clean-cut teen rockers to come. “A Teenager’s Romance” comes from his brief stay at Verve Records, during which he recorded exactly three songs (“I’m Walkin'” and “You’re My One And Only Love” were the other two). “A Teenager’s Romance,” the B-side of “I’m Walkin’,” was first offered to another Verve artist, Randy Sparks, who all but refused to record it. “A Teenager’s Romance” peaked at #2 on the US charts in May of 1957. Ozzie Nelson took advantage of an error in the Verve contract to place Ricky with Imperial after all three of his Verve recordings became hits.