More Useless Trivia Time
Mathew and Gunnar Nelson are in the Guinness Book of World Records as part of the only family (blood relation, not by marriage) to have ever had three successive generations achieve a #1 Record.
1st: Ozzie and Harriet Nelson
2nd: Ricky Nelson
3rd: Mathew and Gunnar Nelson, as the band
Nelson
By marriage, they are also related to Mark Harmon (their Uncle). The Harmons (Mark Harmon's parents), were good friends of the Nelsons (Ricky Nelson's parents). Mark Harmon's father was a former football player from the University of Michigan (and Heisman Trophy winner), a decorated pilot in WWII, was the overall #1 draft pick for the NFL in 1941 (but didn't play until after the war in 1946), and a sports broadcaster (which he did for the rest of his life after playing only 1 NFL season - due to knee injuries from WWII).
The band Nelson, has been much maligned by hardcore rock fans as slick, watered-down, overproduced, glam-rock. But in reality, their style tends more toward grittier rock with a country-western edge. The tone of their debut album was very much a result of record company interference. Their second album suffered even more interference than the first, requiring multiple recordings over 18 months to satisfy their record company (after the completed album
Imaginator, was rejected by the record company for being too hard and heavy - they later released it on their own private record label). Because of this interference, they named the album
"Because They Can". Unfortunately, during the time following their first album and the time it took to record their second, the popular trends in music had moved on to the burgeoning grunge movement, and
Nelson fell out of mainstream notice. However, they have continued to perform and record albums, releasing five more albums since the release of
Imaginator. With the latest release being just this last year (2010), with the albun
Lightining Strikes Twice.
