Released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of
Ricky Nelson
's tragic death,
Capitol
/
EMI
's 2005 compilation
Greatest Hits
is not the first collection to bear that title, nor is it the first to span from his first big hit (1957's
"Be Bop Baby"
) to his last (1972's
"Garden Party"
). However, it is the best of these Greatest Hits albums, and the best single-disc
comp yet assembled. Weighing in at 25 tracks, it has all the big hits. In fact, it has all but two of the 20 songs from the 2002 Greatest Hits (
"For You"
and
"She Belongs to Me"
were axed), and it corrects the more serious omissions from that collection as well. In particular, the great
"Waitin' in School,"
inexplicably absent from the 2002 comp, is here, along with
"My Bucket's Got a Hole in It,"
which is enough to make this the very best
collection yet. Not only is it the place to go to get all of his biggest and best songs, but it's proof positive that he was one of the best and most underrated of the early rock & rollers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine