Tune Tuesday – Poor Little Fool

It was on this day in 1958 that the Billboard Hot 100 Chart debuted. The purpose was to combine sales and radio play into a single standard genre chart.

Notice that the first number one belonged to Ricky Nelson – Poor Little Fool. It is hard to believe, but Ricky didn’t think the song was a hit.

According to songfacts.com:

Nelson didn’t hear hit potential in this song, but his father, the popular bandleader Ozzie Nelson, did. Ozzie convinced Ricky’s label, Imperial Records, to issue it as a single, but Ricky refused to approve a photo for the cover and wouldn’t perform it on the family TV show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ozzie’s instincts were correct.

Fun Fact: “Poor Little Fool” was written by 17-year-old Sharon Sheeley when she was still attending high school in Newport Beach, California. Female songwriters were rare at the time, and when the song climbed to #1 in the US, she became the first woman to compose an American chart-topper on her own.

Ricky was a year into his singing career when this song became his first #1 hit. He was second only to Elvis among American male solo artists around this time in terms of popularity. In an interesting Elvis connection, the guys backing up Ricky on Poor Little Fool were The Jordanaires, who were Elvis Presley’s backing singers. They were not credited because of their association with Elvis.

In yet another Elvis connection, writer Sharon Sheeley had actually met Elvis. It was Elvis who encouraged her to write songs.

Sheeley sought out Ricky to record the song.  She drove to his house, and claimed her car had broken down. He came to her aid, and she sprang the song on him. Her version was at a much faster tempo than his recording.