Some of ya'll seem to know quite a bit about the show, so maybe you can help me out. First of all, all of the bios I have read on the show or Rick's career state that after his singing debut on the show with "I'm Walking", his singing was a regular part of the show. Yet I have collected all the tapes and dvd's of the show I can find, and very few of them feature Ricky singing. I have a few comps fans have put together of just Ricky's songs from the show, but I'd like to have the full shows the songs were featured in. Were Ricky's songs edited out of the video's and dvd's, or did he just not sing that often on the show?

Some of ya'll seem to know quite a bit about the show, so maybe you can help me out. First of all, all of the bios I have read on the show or Rick's career state that after his singing debut on the show with "I'm Walking", his singing was a regular part of the show. Yet I have collected all the tapes and dvd's of the show I can find, and very few of them feature Ricky singing. I have a few comps fans have put together of just Ricky's songs from the show, but I'd like to have the full shows the songs were featured in. Were Ricky's songs edited out of the video's and dvd's, or did he just not sing that often on the show?

Rick sung quite a bit on the show, in fact some earlier episodes were re-edited in reruns to include Rick singing.....I have over 200 episodes from film with original commercials even and many contain Rick singing, the problem with DVD releases as usual is music clearances and licenses....the episodes are in the public domain with no copyright, but the songs aren't, so they are edited out of the cheap $1 O&H DVD releases.

There are some $1 public domain DVDs that include his singing. I have one that has his rendition of "Dinah," though I can't recall which episode that was (I'm sure someone here remembers; I think Kris was in it). Try to find Brentwood Home Video releases. Not only do they include the full episode, but even original commercials in some cases.

Edit: "Dinah" is on their copy of Rick Grows a Beard. And I believe Rick's Riding Lesson is out there with the song "Cindy" included.

There are some $1 public domain DVDs that include his singing. I have one that has his rendition of "Dinah," though I can't recall which episode that was (I'm sure someone here remembers; I think Kris was in it). Try to find Brentwood Home Video releases. Not only do they include the full episode, but even original commercials in some cases.

Edit: "Dinah" is on their copy of Rick Grows a Beard. And I believe Rick's Riding Lesson is out there with the song "Cindy" included.

I didn't say all $1 PD releases don't contain Rick singing, it depends on the copyright of the song....many songs are also in the public domain, Rick did alot of standard R&B, especially in the earlier days, but anything written by him will most likely not appear on a PD DVD release, depending on the company, some will take chances and since the universe is full of O&H public domain DVD's, it isn't worth taking the most likely fly by night company to court.

Thanks, guys. I will try to hunt those discs down. One of the Dollar Store O&H dvd's has Ozzie and Harriet singing, but not Rick! (Cruise for Harriet). Looks like mom and pop were trying to cash in on Ricky's rock and roll popularity, both songs have kind of pop/rock sound to them, with the 4 Preps backing them up. I was disappointed that the official O&H DVD's didn't include more eps with Ricky singing in them. It's not the same to just tack a few songs on separate from the eps. Imagine doing that on a Monkees DVD! I suppose, as you say, it all boils down to music copyrights and stuff, but at least on the official dvd's, that shouldn't be an issue, as most of the songs Rick recorded were published by his own Eric Music or Hilliard Music (later Matragun Music).

Thanks, guys. I will try to hunt those discs down. One of the Dollar Store O&H dvd's has Ozzie and Harriet singing, but not Rick! (Cruise for Harriet). Looks like mom and pop were trying to cash in on Ricky's rock and roll popularity, both songs have kind of pop/rock sound to them, with the 4 Preps backing them up. I was disappointed that the official O&H DVD's didn't include more eps with Ricky singing in them. It's not the same to just tack a few songs on separate from the eps. Imagine doing that on a Monkees DVD! I suppose, as you say, it all boils down to music copyrights and stuff, but at least on the official dvd's, that shouldn't be an issue, as most of the songs Rick recorded were published by his own Eric Music or Hilliard Music (later Matragun Music).

There I agree but since the only official DVD's have been released by Shout Factory, the episodes shouldn't be edited to 22 minutes either and every episode that Shout released has been.... so go figure???

The Mill Creek releases pictured at the top of this thread or "not authorized" releases, they are great but are just glorified $1 public domain releases for $19.95...I love them...but the Nelsons do not get compensated.

Speaking of Ozzie and Harriet singing on the show, they actually released an album around the end of 1957 called Ozzie and Harriet Sing. It was released on Imperial Records (Ricky's label at the time). It was reissued circa 1966 under the title Ozzie and Harriet on the budget label Sunset Records, albeit with 2 of its 12 songs deleted. Harriet told Jimmie Haskell (who produced this album as well as Ricky's throughout the O&H years) that she enjoyed doing the album less than a root canal (!), but that she did it because Ozzie wanted her to. Kind of makes you wonder if the comments from some of Ozzie's colleagues about him having an enormous ego were true--as if he were trying to show that he could make records just as well as Ricky. There's even the episode (from the time of the album's release), "The Christmas Tree Lot," in which Ozzie sings "Baby I'm Sorry" (which Ricky also recorded), and Ricky comments on how good Ozzie sounds and David says, "Didn't you know? He was the Ricky Nelson of his day!" But Ozzie and Harriet Sings wasn't exactly a best seller, and it's a hard-to-find collector's item (both the original release and the reissue) today. Maybe Shout Factory could buy the rights from Capitol/EMI and include it as an audio bonus on their next O&H DVD release (if there is one, which I hope will be the case).

Speaking of Ozzie and Harriet singing on the show, they actually released an album around the end of 1957 called Ozzie and Harriet Sing. It was released on Imperial Records (Ricky's label at the time). It was reissued circa 1966 under the title Ozzie and Harriet on the budget label Sunset Records, albeit with 2 of its 12 songs deleted. Harriet told Jimmie Haskell (who produced this album as well as Ricky's throughout the O&H years) that she enjoyed doing the album less than a root canal (!), but that she did it because Ozzie wanted her to. Kind of makes you wonder if the comments from some of Ozzie's colleagues about him having an enormous ego were true--as if he were trying to show that he could make records just as well as Ricky. There's even the episode (from the time of the album's release), "The Christmas Tree Lot," in which Ozzie sings "Baby I'm Sorry" (which Ricky also recorded), and Ricky comments on how good Ozzie sounds and David says, "Didn't you know? He was the Ricky Nelson of his day!" But Ozzie and Harriet Sings wasn't exactly a best seller, and it's a hard-to-find collector's item (both the original release and the reissue) today. Maybe Shout Factory could buy the rights from Capitol/EMI and include it as an audio bonus on their next O&H DVD release (if there is one, which I hope will be the case).

Yes Ozzie might have had a tremendous ego, his 1973 autobiography, easily found used on amazon is amazing....BUT....Harriet in my opinion was probably a real tough broad.....I hate using that word.....But she smoked, drank daily and once called the beloved eagle above the Nelson fireplace..."That F***'in Eagle" and demanded it not be on the set of the limited 1973 follow-up series "Ozzie's Girls". So there are two sides of every LP and story!

Thanks, guys. I will try to hunt those discs down. One of the Dollar Store O&H dvd's has Ozzie and Harriet singing, but not Rick! (Cruise for Harriet). Looks like mom and pop were trying to cash in on Ricky's rock and roll popularity, both songs have kind of pop/rock sound to them, with the 4 Preps backing them up. I was disappointed that the official O&H DVD's didn't include more eps with Ricky singing in them. It's not the same to just tack a few songs on separate from the eps. Imagine doing that on a Monkees DVD! I suppose, as you say, it all boils down to music copyrights and stuff, but at least on the official dvd's, that shouldn't be an issue, as most of the songs Rick recorded were published by his own Eric Music or Hilliard Music (later Matragun Music).

The Mill Creek 100 ep set has a quite a few eps with Ricky singing. It's a great way to get a lot of eps of this great series all at once....and at 20-25 cents an ep you really do get a lotta bang for your buck. The down side is many of eps are likely editted a bit - but... nothing's perfect out there. I know for example, the ep "Bedtime Story" on Mill Creek is editted down. I have a great VHS copy of it on a 2 ep set by Nostalgia...but it cost $18 - so there is a tradeoff. But the 2 eps on it are flawless - commercials and all.

The 2 SHOUT! sets are very nice too.

Dan, if you really want to add to your O&H collection--get the Mill Creek set!!
It was the best recommendation Rich (OH Nuts!) gave me and enjoyed this set immensely!!! :D

Sounds like Mill Creek did a great job - better than the Nelsons themselves. Still hard to believe the "official" dvd's contain edited eps. There are quite a few eps on that list above that I have, but minus the songs.

Can Anyone tell me where I can find the episode with Ricky singing "String Along"? It doesn't appear to be anywhere on the official seasons from MPI. Is there any specific release where it is included? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

You're right--it was obviously on the TV show since the Youtube video must be from there. I have a list that says it may have been played on #416 Kris and the Queen. I don't remember hearing that song, but in season 14 I do remember one black and white video.

We do know that Ozzie switched up the songs on summer reruns. You'd need all the reruns too to figure out which song played when.

Someone on the Youtube comments claims to remember hearing this on the Adv. of Ozzie and Harriet. It was slated to be aired in episode 358 Music Festival at the end of season 11 but there wasn't time for it (yet the lower-charting side of that single, Gypsy Woman, did make it into that episode). It charted on June 15, 1963 and peaked at #25 sometime later in the summer--it probably would have gone higher but the British Invasion dominated the charts at that time. You'd have to think this video made it into a summer rerun, but if so, it'd be great to know which episode.

It was not a part of Kris and the Queen from season 14. It turns out a fan inserted it into that episode.

Wow. Thanks for the information. I wonder what the source for the video was. Interesting to know it was originally slated for inclusion on the Music Festival episode.

Not an O&H fan, BUT I just noticed the long list of episodes with Ricky singing.

As I was born in 1959, I vaguely remember each ep on ABC maybe from 1962 on, having Ricky do a song at the end of each ep.

Three questions:

(1) Which episode was really the first one to have Ricky end the show with a song, and what airdate?

(2) Does the new DVD collection feature the songs, or is it a music licensing roadblock?

(3) Just thought of this—Why do the closing credits on many eps just show “copyright by Ozzie Nelson”? I always like to see the date. I do remember seeing season 1 eps with a copyright date. That one throws me.

Any help, as usual, would be appreciated.

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1. The first original episode where Ricky sang was "Ricky the Drummer," airdate April 10, 1957--he sang "I'm Walkin'." It was a season 5 episode, and Ricky was 16, nearly 17. Maybe someone else can answer when the first video-style song was presented at the end of an episode, but it was probably later in that season.

2. The DVDs from MPI have the music videos, and all the other musical performances--the Nelson family owns all the music and they probably paid songwriter and any other fees to include them on the DVDs.

In some summer rerun episodes other videos were substituted. "String Along" is a possible example of this, mentioned earlier in this thread. The video is on Youtube--and the fact that it exists and someone had it to post it, probably means it was in some episode--if so, no one knows which one--my theory is, a summer rerun. It was scheduled to be part of the Music Festival episode, June 6, 1963.

3. I recently read somewhere that including the year was a copyright requirement. Since Ozzie didn't do it, it's supposedly the reason many episodes are public domain. Not sure I buy that, since Ozzie almost never included the year and not all episodes are P. D.

^ Interesting, thanks.

CTN Lifestyle channel, although Christian, sprinkles some PD sitcoms in the schedule. For a long time it was running O&H, along with the original commercials. They ran Make Room for Daddy last week, and I can only assume it’s the Jean Hagen eps. This week, they run 4 straight eps of The Dick Van Dyke show; only six fell into PD.

“I’m Walkin’ “ is also Ricky’s first big hit, played on radio alongside Fats Domino’s version. I didn’t know that summer reruns switched out for another song. Just like The Monkees substituting songs.

Edit: oh yeah, I read somewhere (here on SO I think) that the Al Brodax made-for-TV Popeye cartoons that had an incorrect copyright date (“MCMXL” instead of the correct MCMLX) automatically made it PD and allowed MeTV to air those few, as bad as they were.

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