Now that's what I call a milestone: Looking back on 100 editions of the Now music compilation

TODAY sees the release of the 100th Now That’s What I Call Music compilation.

The albums have flown off the shelves over the past 35 years, bringing together collections of the top chart hits.

The first NOW compilation was released on November 28 1983, featuring chart smashes by Culture Club, Heaven 17, Duran Duran and Bonnie Tyler.

Now 100 revisits a number of the songs from the first edition on its second disc, with current hits from Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande and Liam Payne on disc one.

From vinyl to digital download, tape, CD and even mini-disc, the NOW brand has maintained its popularity over the years, still selling millions of copies to this day.

Now that’s a name

The NOW brand name has a rather bizarre backstory.

The series took its name from a 1920s advertising poster for Danish bacon featuring a pig saying, “Now that’s what I call music” as it listened to a chicken singing.

The poster had been bought by Virgin Records boss Richard Branson as a gift to his cousin to hang behind his desk at the office.

The pig became a mascot for the series, appearing on the first few editions, and making a return on NOW 100.

Now and then

Compilations were already on the market prior to the release of the first Now, with record labels often releasing them to showcase their artists.

There were also albums put together by TV marketing brands like K-Tel and Ronco with a handful of chart songs, padded out with songs that could hardly be called hits.

Some even had covers of famous songs by anonymous session singers that didn’t quite match up to the real thing.

Ronco’s Raiders of the Pop Charts compilation, released in 1983, was one such example.

Virgin saw the success and decided that they could do a better job themselves, with the rights to include songs that were chart-toppers.

NOW 1 had 11 number ones on it, including Phil Collins’ You Can’t Hurry Love, Baby Jane by Rod Stewart and UB40’s Red Red Wine.

The vinyl and audio cassette release was a huge success, and the brand has continued to be popular to this day.

Michael Milligan, who has worked in music retail for 25 years for the likes of HMV and spent 10 years as head of music for Tesco, has documented the history of Now 1 – 100 in a new book.

The Story of NOW That’s What I Call Music In 100 Artists is due to be released later this year.

“If you look back over them all, it’s a little snapshot of a time,” he says. “Their only editorial policy is that they always remember pop is short for popular. They’re never judgemental.

“As a consequence you find Coldplay, Beyonce and Adele listed on the same pages of Now history as Crazy Frog, Jive Bunny and Bob the Builder.

“You can look back and find a song that reminds you of a time or a place or ask ‘what was I thinking, why did we like that at the time!'”

Now and forever?

“People have built an affinity with the brand, they love it and they trust it,” Michael says.

“They trust NOW like a familiar DJ or good radio station to do the curation for them.”

Even with the rise of online music and streaming, the NOW CDs still have large volumes of sales.

Customer research in recent years has shown that many people buy the compilation to play in the car with their family.

And around half of supermarket purchases of the CDs are then given as gifts, often from parent to child.

Now has also always been at the forefront of changes to music technology, and now boasts an App and TV service.

As early as 1984, they started CD releases – several years before the medium went fully mainstream.

NOW 4 was the first volume on CD, featuring fifteen songs, compared to thirty-two on the equivalent LP and cassette.

They dropped vinyl in 1996, and tape in 2006, while also dabbling with mini-disc between 1999 and 2001.

NOW 52 in 2005 was the first edition that was available to download.

With the strong brand and the willingness to move with the times, it is likely that Now will carry on and one day we’ll see NOW 200 and perhaps more.

“By adapting they will survive,” Michael says. “There’s a really good business model that sits behind Now, and it’s now available in 30 regional markets. It’s a brand that’s translated and can be licensed overseas.”

The Story of NOW That’s What I Call Music In 100 Artists’ by Michael Mulligan will be published by Trapeze (an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group) on 4 October 2018.

Now that’s a fact

Now has over 120 million sales over 35 years
Eight artists on the first NOW have never made another appearance, including Mike Oldfield and Bonnie Tyler.
The first one hundred volumes have featured 2,100 different artists
Ninety-eight of the first ninety-nine volumes reached number 1 in the Official Albums Chart. NOW 4 is the exception – it spent two weeks at Number 2.
The first one hundred volumes featured six hundred and four different number 1 singles.
The most successful volume to date is NOW 44 (November 1999) which sold 2.3 million copies and is the biggest selling compilation album ever in the UK.
Robbie Williams is the most-featured artist in the series, with thirty-one solo appearances, another five with Take That, plus appearances with charity projects
Girls Aloud have the highest number of consecutive appearances – thirteen volumes – with a track on every album from NOW 54 to NOW 66.
Spice Girls have appeared eleven times as a band and twenty-seven times as solo artists (Geri 8, Emma 6, Mel B 5, Mel C 5 and Victoria 3). They also have the most number 1 singles on NOW by any one artist – nine.
Calvin Harris, Khalid, Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa have made the most appearances on one volume. Calvin has three songs on NOW 80, Khalid has three on NOW 98, Justin has three on NOW 97 while Dua Lipa has three on NOW 96.
If you can find a copy of Volume 4 on CD expect to pay about £600. (Source: Discogs.com)
At two minutes and four seconds Oasis’s ‘Songbird’ (NOW 54) is the shortest song to appear
The longest is Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’ (NOW 20) at eight minutes and thirty-four seconds.
When the first NOW was released on 28 November 1983 Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ was the number 1 single and Paul Young’s debut ‘No Parlez’ topped the album chart. Paul has appeared on NOW three times but Billy has never appeared.
The first four appearances by German dance act Sash! were in four different languages; ‘Encore Une Fois’ (NOW 36) – French, ‘Ecuador’ (NOW 37) – Spanish, ‘Stay’ (NOW 38) – English and ‘La Primavera’ (NOW 39) – Italian.