Music
The Nelson brothers spent two years learning how to write songs and, in the process, met their mentor, Los Angeles record producer Marc Tanner. Tanner and the twins wrote what would become the triple-platinum After the Rain album in 1990, after being signed to Geffen Records in 1989.
Their singles, "(I Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection", "After the Rain", "More Than Ever", "Only Time Will Tell" and "(You Got Me) All Shook Up," all held positions on Billboard's Top 40 with "Love and Affection" reaching #1 in September 1990, after receiving airplay on MTV where they also had #1 videos.
When "Love and Affection" reached the #1 position on the charts, the Nelsons landed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only family to have #1 records in three successive generations (their grandfather, Ozzie Nelson, had a #1 hit with "And Then Some" in 1934, and their father, Ricky Nelson, had #1 hits with "Poor Little Fool" in 1958 and "Travelin' Man" in 1961). However, as the British music magazine, NME, pointed out in October 1990, this feat was also achieved by Red Foley, Pat Boone and Debby Boone. Yet, because Pat Boone was the son-in-law of Red Foley, the Nelson family still holds the "Guinness Book of World Records" as Ozzie Nelson, Ricky Nelson, and Matthew Nelson and Gunnar Nelson are of the same bloodline family.
Gunnar Nelson co-founded the Stone Canyon Records label with his brother in 1995 after leaving Geffen Records. He released seven albums on that label.
Gunnar Nelson plays a variety of musical instruments, including the drums, electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, piano, and bazouki.
He has toured extensively with Peter Frampton and Styx, as well as performing full band shows and acoustic duos with his brother. The headline shows included their own hits, as well as those of their late father. A live album, Like Fathers, Like Sons, featured Ricky Nelson's hit songs, as well as a tribute song they wrote to their late father called, "Just Once More". "Just Once More" was featured on CBS' daytime drama, The Bold & the Beautiful in a Valentine's episode aired in February 2006.
He also sings the theme of Team Chaotix in the video game Sonic Heroes.
Read more about this topic: Gunnar Nelson
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“The music stopp’d, and I stood still,
And found myself outside the Hill,
Left alone against my will,
To go now limping as before,
And never hear of that country more!””
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. But there is also, it seems to me, a moment at which democracy must prove its capacity to act. Every man has a right to be heard; but no man has the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal chords.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)