Playing to Win is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer Rick Nelson, released in January, 1981, on Capitol Records. It was the last album of new material Nelson would release in his lifetime. His next studio effort, All My Best, featured re-recordings of old Nelson hits while The Memphis Sessions his final collection of all-new material, was released posthumously.
it featured several rockabilly songs, including "Back to School Days", a contemporary version of "Believe What You Say", and John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night",[4] The Tentalive title came from one of his two originals on the album, "Call It What You Want," a jaunty, Rolling Stones-style romp, His other original however, provided the LP's most pro-phetic song, "The Loser Babe is You."[5] according to Nelson, "The album was going to be called 'It's Rock and Roll to Me, "but the idea was shelved because Billy Joel brought out a thing with the same theme, I just want to make records that sound like me. I've been through so many people telling me 'Go this direction' and then changing their minds the next day."[5]
The album debuted on the BillboardTop LPs & Tape chart in the issue dated February 21 of that year and remained on the chart for six weeks, peaking at number 153.[6]
Reception
William Ruhlmann of AllMusic said that "Nelson updated his rock & roll sound to take into consideration the heartland rock of artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and Tom Petty, as well as punk/new wave. As always, he had great taste, which allowed him to pick great material"[7]
Billboard called it "new wave - inflected rock" and an energetic and fun collection"[8]
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