Nelson says hello again, to Mary Lou and DVD fans

Ricky Nelson sold millions of records in the 1950s and ‘60s, and was at one point second only to Elvis Presley as a commercial force in pop music. He was never, however, the cultural firebrand that Presley was, nor other seminal rockers such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard -- a good reason his name wasn’t called along with theirs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first batch of inductees.

That, as it turns out, was his key strength, a point reinforced convincingly in “Ricky Nelson Sings” (Capitol/EMI), a gently entertaining DVD documentary (in stores today) containing 18 of his performances on his family’s hit TV series “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.” The DVD and a companion single CD with 25 of his hits are being released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1985.

Nelson was, in many respects, the anti-Elvis -- a clean-cut, nonthreatening kid millions of Americans grew up adoring as “the irrepressible Ricky,” the wisecracking younger offspring of ultra-square Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. Yet Elvis himself was a fan of Nelson’s music, as were many other pop music icons.

Bob Dylan, in his “Chronicles: Volume One,” lauded Nelson, writing, “He sang his songs calm and steady like he was in the middle of a storm, men hurling past him. His voice was sort of mysterious and made you fall into a certain mood.”

Performances include his debut as a 16-year-old pop singer with his version of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’,” a single that reportedly sold 1 million copies the following week, as well as early-’60s hits including “Hello Mary Lou” and “Travelin’ Man.”

Many are more memorable for Nelson’s charismatic delivery than for the now-formulaic teenager-in-love scenarios, but a few sizzle on their own, often because of James Burton’s fiery guitar work. And ballads such as “It’s Up to You” and “Never Be Anyone Else but You” hold up nicely nearly 50 years later.

Dick, John and Yoko

A little more than a year after the Beatles broke up in 1970, John Lennon gave his first interview on American television with ABC talk-show host Dick Cavett, a collaboration that turned into three appearances for Lennon and Yoko Ono on the erudite Cavett’s program in 1971 and 1972, all of which are contained in a two-DVD set “The Dick Cavett Show: John & Yoko Collection” (Shout Factory).

Given the perfunctory treatment pop music has gotten on network talk shows in the last couple of decades, it’s startling to revisit these extended segments with one of rock’s most important figures. Lennon was at an artistic peak, having just released “Imagine,” when he first visited Cavett in September 1971.

There’s much witty repartee between Lennon, Ono and Cavett, showing that his Beatle charm and good humor hadn’t been trampled during the group’s nasty breakup.

The talk runs deep over the course of that night, which ran beyond the show’s 90-minute time slot, producing enough footage to make up a second segment that aired two weeks later.

Lennon and Ono returned in May 1972, at which time the topics included the U.S. government’s attempt to deport Lennon because of an earlier marijuana arrest in England, at the same time that Yoko was involved in a custody battle in this country with her ex-husband over their daughter Kyoko.

Lennon also gave a passionate explanation of his song “Woman Is the Nigger of the World,” prefacing a performance ABC censors wanted to delete.

It made for a riveting marriage of television and rock music, and a window into the lives of one of rock’s most extraordinary couples, the kind of thing rarely if ever seen on network TV today.