On this date in 1985, Rick Nelson & six others died when his charted DC-3 aircraft crashed in Texas. A generation grew up with Rick and his brother David as co-stars on their parent’s television show, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”. When Rick showed interest in music, his bandleader father knew how to capitalize on it. Here’s a 1986 remembrance, courtesy of Popular Culture Classics. Nelson patriarch, Ozzie, died in 1975, mom Harriet in 1994, and older brother David passed away in 2011 at the age of 74. A 1998 documentary revealed a family quite different from what we saw on the small screen, but perhaps more like many real families were, then and now.
What do Animal Crossing, “WAP,” sourdough bread, Timothée Chalamet and “social distancing date ideas” all have in common?
Looking ahead to 2020:
Will the New Year mean a new gig? If you’re over 50, you better have a Plan-B. Research shows that more than half of us in that age bracket are more likely to be pushed out of our job before we are ready to go. Here are some tips on reinventing yourself from our friends at the Harvard Business Review, just in case you need them..
Quick Takes:
The folks at TED teach us “How to disagree productively and find common ground“. A skill sorely needed in Washington right now.
Check out Robert DeNiro, DustinHoffman & JohnTravolta before they were famous, in these early 1960s TV commercials.
The 1960 version of Oceans Eleven was set on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. It remains my favorite version of the franchise. Here’s the original trailer.
SyFi is running another New Year’s Eve Twilight Zone marathon. Rod Serling‘s daughter, Anne, regularly tweets about her famous father. What’s your favorite episode?
Today’s Birthdays:
Andy Summers (The Police), 1942; John Denver, 1943 (died 1997); Pete Quaife (The Kinks), 1943 (died 2010); Burton Cummings (The Guess Who), 1947; Donna Summer, 1948 (died 2012); Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith), 1951
We put 2018 to bed remembering Natalie Cole, the talented daughter of Nat “King” Cole, who passed away on this date in 2015. Here’s her stunning live virtual duet with dad.
Scott Westerman
Host and Producer – Rock and Roll Revisited
Author: Motor City Music – Keener 13 and the Soundtrack of Detroit
