In 1976 Nez wrote and recorded the song "Rio" and things haven't been the same since. When the song was released in 1977/78 he was asked by his distributor in England to make a promotional clip the distributor could send out to European markets. As Nez says, he didn't exaclty know what this meant, but he figured he would make a little movie of the song. He was friends with William Dear, a commercial director/cinematographer who he had met when Dear asked him to score his first film. Nez asked Dear if he would be willing to shoot and help direct two promotional films. One for "Rio" and the other for "Navajo Trail". Dear agreed and while Navajo Trail didn't make it to completion, "Rio" did.
Once the "Rio" promo clip was finished, Nez took it to England to deliver to the distributor. As it worked out, the promotional team from Europe had convened just at that time, and were watching the available clips for the new releases. When "Rio" came on, they sat spellbound, and when it was over, they stood and cheered. Nez had no idea what he had stumbled into, until he saw the rest of the clips they had been watching. They were mostly performances, someone standing up and singing to the camera, without any attempt to capture the spirit of the tune with film language. Nez and Dear had changed all that.
"Rio" went on to become a hit in the UK, Europe and Australia. It never got very far in the US, mostly because there were no outlets for promotional films like this at that time.
Dear and Nez made more little films of Nez tunes to prove it wasn't a fluke, and from that was born "Elephant Parts", winner of the first video grammy.
From there Nez looked at the shows throughout Europe that were playing these clips and hatched the idea of a twenty-four hour a day music television channel, an idea he ultimately sold to Warner Cable and American Express, which became MTV. But that's another story.
All this from that one song. And this is the record that started it.
These are in almost perfect condition. The records are unplayed, 45 rpm. The sleeves are beautifully printed and have only a slight curl at the upper right hand corner. The cover picture is black and white photo of Nez in white tie and tails with the four "Rio" dancers. The label is Pacific Arts in Carmel, California. The recording copyright is 1978.
There are only twenty available for 100US$ each. Nez will sign and date each one.
