I Just Fell in Love With a 63-Year-Old Album

Album Review #12 of 100 in 2022: ‘Ricky Sings Again’ by Ricky Nelson

One of the things I love about music is that there is always great music out there to discover — whether it’s brand new or very old. Sometimes it just takes a long while to discover it.

Shortly after Ricky Nelson passed away in 1985, I bought one of his Greatest Hits compilations. I loved it and told myself that I should someday delve into one of his studio albums.

Well, it took me a very long time, but I finally got around to it. I recently checked out his third album, Ricky Sings Again, from 1959. I was familiar with the two big hits from it, “It’s Late” and “Lonesome Town,” but the rest of the songs were completely new to me.

I expected to like at least a few of the songs, but my expectations for the album were a little low. Back in the late 1950s, a lot of rock and roll albums contained a lot of “filler” songs to surround the standout tracks that the record companies planned on releasing as singles. As such, a lot of albums from back then had a few very good songs on them — and quite a few very, very average songs on them.

This was definitely not the case with the Ricky Sings Again album. There’s not a bad song on it.

On my first listen, one thing that immediately jumped out at me was the exceptional background vocals on most of the songs. The voices sounded very familiar to me. I did a little research and discovered why — I was hearing The Jordanaires, a group that is probably best known for singing background on several hit songs by Elvis Presley. Here’s one of my favorite performances by them with Elvis:

Pretty awesome, right? The Jordanaires sounded just as awesome singing background for Ricky Nelson on Ricky Sings Again.

I liked the album the first time I listened to it. Then I listened again and liked it even more.

I kept playing it. In the past week or so, I’ve listened to it at least 10 times. It contains a great mixture of rock and roll songs and ballads. Ricky Nelson’s voice sounds exceptional on all of them.

Here are five of my favorites from the album:

It’s Late

A big hit — and understandably so!

Believe What You Say

Outstanding vocals from both Ricky and The Jordanaires. I also love the great, rocking guitar playing in this song.

Tryin’ To Get To You

Even though the exceptional ballad “Lonesome Town” from the album was a big hit, I’d say that “Tryin’ To Get To You” is my favorite ballad on the album. Then again, I also love “Be True To Me” a lot.

Grrrr — I honestly can’t decide which ballad I like the best! But then again, I don’t have to, right? Right. (Phew!)

I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)

This was written by Hank Williams and was a big country hit for him many years before Ricky Nelson recorded it. I don’t know Hank’s original version, but I love how Ricky did the song.

You Tear Me Up

Another very cool rock and roll song. This is another one with exceptional background vocals and guitar playing.

Here’s the album on Spotify. This version contains five tracks that were not on the original release.

As I’ve made pretty clear above, I love Ricky Sings Again by Ricky Nelson. Out of 5 possible stars, I give it…4 stars!

This review is the 12th part of a series I’m doing in which I’m listening to and reviewing 100 albums (new and old) in 2022. Here are the others I’ve reviewed this year:

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