The Life of Beloved Star Ricky Nelson and His Tragic Demise

When the Beatles exploded in America in 1964, popular music changed almost overnight. Rick had spent years near the top of the charts, but suddenly audiences were embracing British groups that wrote and performed their own material and brought a very different image to rock music.

At only 23, Rick was hardly old, yet he was already associated with an earlier era of teenage rock and roll. Records that once seemed almost guaranteed to chart began struggling for attention. He still had television and Hollywood connections to fall back on, but his next movie would show that acting offered no easy escape.