Track Listing

1. Travelin' Man (1961)
2. Hello Mary Lou (1961)
3. Poor Little Fool (1958)
4. Lonesome Town (1958)
5. Believe What You Say (1958)
6. I'm Walkin' (1957)
7. Waitin' In School (1958)
8. Everlovin' (1961)
9. Fools Rush In (1963)
10. Teenage Idol (1962)
11. Stood Up (1957)
12. Be Bop Baby (1957)
13. My Bucket's Got A Hole In It (1958)
14. It's Late (1959)
15. Never Be Anyone Else But You (1959)
16. I Got A Feeling (1958)
17. Sweeter Than You (1959)
18. Young Emotions (1960)
19. A Wonder Like You (1961)
20. Just A Little Too Much (1959)
21. It's Up To You (1962)
22. Young World (1962)
23. I Wanna Be Loved (1959)
24. You Are The Only One (1960)
25. Garden Party (1972)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6350 in Music
• Brand: Nelson
• Released on: 2005-12-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
When talking about the history of Rock 'N' Roll, Rick 'Ricky' Nelson tends to get overlooked. While he didn't create the genre, brought the new style of music to the masses when his character began performing it on the Ozzie & Harriet show in the late '50s. He became a teen idol and recorded some of the finest music of the era including 'Poor Little Fool', 'Lonesome Town', 'I'm Walking', 'It's Late', 'Travelin' Man', 'Hello Mary Lou' and more. In the '60s, he dropped the 'y' and became Rick and scored more hits. His final hit, the self-penned 'Garden Party', was one of the biggest hits of his career and, once again, he helped to introduce the vibrant and young Country Rock movement to the masses. 25 tracks. EMI Gold.

Customer Reviews

Satisfying, But Omissions Keep It From Being Definitive
Rick(y) Nelson was one of the most successful artists of the rock 'n' roll era. Just two years after his debut single (a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'") Nelson had charted fifteen hits--and seven of them sold more than a million copies! Only Elvis sold more records.

Granted, it didn't hurt that Nelson had a national television audience with "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." But it obviously took more than movie idol good looks to sustain a music career that would last nearly three decades.

Many of Nelson's biggest Imperial hits featured future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist James Burton (who would become Elvis' guitarist in the Seventies). To further the Elvis connection, Nelson also frequently utilized the The Jordanaires, including on a cover of Elvis' "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You," which reached No. 29 in 1957 (but not included here). Nelson also benefited from the songwriting talents of Baker Knight ("Lonesome Town," "I Got a Feeling") and rockabilly stalwarts Johnny and Dorsey Burnette ("Believe What You Say," "Waitin' in School," "It's Late").

Even though Nelson was still a month shy of his seventeenth birthday when he debuted "I'm Walkin'" on the April 10, 1957 episode, his success was no fluke. He went on to create a body of work that included some of the earliest country/rock recordings. (Although "Garden Party" Is the only song from this era of his career; all other tracks are from 1957-1963.) Eventually Nelson would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987) and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2003).

This latest collection is obviously intended as a memorial in that Dec. 31 will mark the twentieth anniversary of his untimely death at the age of 45. As such it does a good job of bringing together twenty-five of his thirty-six Top 40 hits. [Notable omissions are his 1964 Top Ten hit "For You" and the Bob Dylan cover "She Belongs to Me," which was a minor hit in 1970.] With a playing time of just under sixty minutes, these omissions keep this set from being definitive, but nonetheless a satisfying single-disc anthology. Those wanting more are encouraged to pick up 2000's 4-disc Legacy box set. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Back to an age of more simple, fun, and innocent music
When I saw this CD advertised on TV, with its 25 hits all on one disc, I quickly decided I wanted this definitive Ricky Nelson collection if I could find it at a decent price, which wasn't long in coming. Ricky Nelson was not terribly innovative, borrowing much from others like Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley, and Fats Domino (Nelson covered Domino's far-superior "I'm Walkin'," though much better than Pat Boone's covers of rock 'n' roll innovators). However, Nelson made consistently good pop music - innocent, catchy, hummable tunes, bringing rock 'n' roll / rockabilly to an ever-widening audience. This CD includes 25 of Ricky Nelson's 30 songs that hit the Top 25, mostly top 10 - In that respect, the CD does not disappoint.

I've always had a pet peeve about greatest hits collections that were not compiled chronologically, and this CD is yet another of those. I've talked to many others who feel the same (also reflected in many Amazon reviews). However, I've solved that problem with my purchase of a laptop with a CD burner, and can make my own listening copies - I can now copy songs in any desired order, which is great because many greatest hits packages are thrown together in seemingly random order.

Another advantage of this, which I did not foresee, is the amount of information I've learned about many of the musical artists online while researching the chronology of their music. Wikipedia is often a great resource for this, and most famous musicians / musical groups have their own website - you can find just about anything on the Internet if you look hard enough.

Checking Rick Nelson's website (the discography section), I discovered that if a song didn't make the top 25 (of whatever chart they quoted, probably Billboard), it's not on this greatest hits package. Almost everything that DID make the top 25 is here (though 4 of the 5 omissions are top 10 songs). Also, I'd never liked the song "Garden Party," but after reading about what inspired it, I have much more appreciation for it, all due to surfing the Internet to find song order.

In case you want to make your own "chronological" listening copy, or set the playing order on your CD player to hear these songs in the order they were originally released as singles, I've listed them below, in the order they were released as singles, along with Ricky's five top 25 songs that were not included here (some, or likely all, of which could have been, since this collection is only 59 minutes long). A-sides are listed first, as both sides of many of the singles charted - I listed the date only once when both sides of the same single charted.

4/57 (#2) - A Teenager's Romance (NOT INCLUDED ON THIS COLLECTION - instrumental?)
/ (#4) - I'm Walkin'
8/57 (#4) - You're My One and Only (NOT INCLUDED ON THIS COLLECTION)
9/57 (#3) - Be-Bop Baby
11/57 (#2) - Stood Up
/ (#18) - Waitin' in School
3/58 (#4) - Believe What You Say
/ (#12) - My Bucket's Got a Hole in It
6/58 (#1) - Poor Little Fool
9/58 (#7) - Lonesome Town
/ (#10) - I Got a Feeling
2/59 (#6) - Never Be Anyone Else But You
/ (#9) - It's Late
6/59 (#9) - Just a Little Too Much
/ (#9) - Sweeter Than You
11/59 (#20) - I Wanna Be Loved
4/60 (#12) - Young Emotions
11/60 (#25) - You Are the Only One
4/61 (#1) - Travelin' Man
/ (#9) - Hello Mary Lou
9/61 (#11) - A Wonder Like You
/ (#16) - Everlovin'
2/62 (#5) - Young World
7/62 (#5) - Teenage Idol
11/62 (#6) - It's Up to You
4/63 (#4) - Old Enough to Love (NOT INCLUDED ON THIS COLLECTION)
5/63 (#25) - String Along (NOT INCLUDED ON THIS COLLECTION)
9/63 (#12) - Fools Rush In
12/63 (#6) - For You (NOT INCLUDED ON THIS COLLECTION)
6/72 (#6) - Garden Party

This music will be enjoyed for many more years. I even recently heard "Garden Party" on some restaurant's TV commercials - Applebee's maybe?

A super collection of rickys greatest hits.This collection is esssential for fifties fans of all ages.
This album contains most of his top hits and more...This disc has been rereleased,and is a perfect match to rickys new dvd release,on 12/28/05.I own both....This album is a must have for avid fifties music collectors...The disc has very good sound,and is sure to please.5 star rated i thank you stewart L.