Playing to Win is the twenty-fourth studio album by American singer Rick Nelson, released in January, 1981, on Capitol Records.

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",[2] 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.

"[3] 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.

[5] 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.