Rick Nelson’s Garden Party 42 Years Ago

It was October 15, 1971 and Rick Nelson was among the performers at an oldies show at New York's Madison Square Garden. It didn't go well for Nelson, who strayed from the hits that made him a teen idol. The people booed, although Nelson said in an interview that  he heard the people were booing at a drunk who was being taken out by police.The Rock n Roll Revival concert featured a variety of artists including  Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Bobby Rydell. Nelson began with his hits Hello, Mary Lou and She Belong to Me, but then did "Country Honk",which was a country version of the Rolling Stones' song Honky Tonk Women. That's apparently not what the crowd wanted to hear. After the concert, Nelson wrote the  song Garden Party  which reached the top ten the following year. It was the last top 40 hit for the teen idol who, who scored 54 chart hits during his career.

Nelson talks about the incident in this interview recorded in 1983, just two years before his death in a plane crash.

Here's  Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band performing on The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack in 1978.