We are less than two weeks away from a landmark moment in the history of popular music, when the most trusted curators of pop music for over 35 years, NOW That’s What I Call Music, release NOW100 on 20 July.
Celebrating 100 albums featuring over 2000 artists and sales of over 120 million, this iconic moment in pop history will have fans across the nation celebrating nearly four decades of the world’s biggest music brand mapping the soundtrack to their lives.
Having woven its way into the hearts of the British public back in 1983 - when there were 4 TV channels and no mobile phones - the treasured compilation albums have become part of the country’s history and ingrained in its popular culture, with sales equivalent to every UK household owning 4 NOW albums.
The musical institution has since found global success in over 60 countries including the USA, South Korea and New Zealand.
To acknowledge this monumental occasion, NOW That’s What I Call Music! 100 will feature two discs; the first celebrating the biggest pop tunes of the moment including Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa, George Ezra and Clean Bandit and the second a NOWstalgia-filled special, remembering the best of the past 99 albums, with classic tracks from UB40, Phil Collins, Oasis, Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child.
Also on disc 1, there is an extra special track from the winners of GMB’s “Sing It To Win It”, girl-band MU4 with “You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Supremes, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Recording Studios.
Phil Collin’s cover version of this classic is the opening track for the very first NOW album. NOW1 will be re-issued on CD, cassette and vinyl to celebrate this momentous occasion and reflect how NOW has evolved over 35 years.
And if that wasn’t enough the NOW Music App will be the only place you can download and listen to all 100 NOW albums.
Over the years the NOW albums have mapped the supersonic careers of the biggest names in pop music, with Robbie Williams holding the record for most appearances, featuring a whopping thirty times with Take That chart-toppers such as Pray and It Only Takes A Minute, and solo hits Angels, Millennium and ROCK DJ. Bajan songstress Rihanna places second, with twenty-seven NOW appearances and Calvin Harris takes third place, featuring twenty-six times.
Whilst NOW has been the backdrop for the most iconic music moments for the past 35 years, its rise has been so stratospheric that it is now part of history, firmly woven into the UK’s pop cultural fabric. Whether it’s Cabbage Patch Dolls in 1983, Tamagotchis in 1996 or the final episode of Friends in 2004, the brand sparks NOWstalgia in everyone, as memories and music intertwine and transport people to the most memorable moments in their lives.
25 NOW Facts to whet your appetite:
1. The first ever NOW compilation sold 1.1 million copies in 1983 and featured 28 artists; Kajagoogoo, UB40 and Culture Club had two songs each, while Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack doubled up for the duet ‘Tonight, I Celebrate My Love’.
2. NOW That's What I Call Music! compilations have been the most popular CDs every year since 2010 - except for 2015, when Adele beat it.
3. 98 (out of 99) the number of albums to reach No 1 in the Official Charts
4. Over half of the UK population, have bought (or been given) a NOW numbered compilation album in the past.
5. The first Now album to be released as download was NOW 62 in 2005
6. Cassette tapes ceased in 2006 with the final cassette being NOW 64
7. The most successful volume to date is 1999's Now 44, which sold 2.3 million copies and is the biggest selling compilation album ever
8. Girls Aloud have clocked up the highest number of consecutive appearances – 13 albums - with a track in every album from NOW 54 to NOW 66
9. In 2017 NOW sold more product than the top selling DVDs and console games such as FIFA and Assassin’s Creed.
10. U2 had the longest gap between first on 1984’s Now 4 and last appearance on Now 99 in 2018
11. It would take over 250 hours to listen to 1-100 Now albums
12. NOW! compilations have spent 654 weeks at number 1 (up to fourth week of NOW 99)
13. MiniDiscs started with NOW 43 in 1999 and ended with NOW 48 in 2001
14. NOW 4 was the first volume on CD. It featured fifteen songs, compared to thirty-two on the LPs and cassette.
15. NOW 4 is the only volume that didn’t get to Number 1. It spent two weeks at Number 2.
16. NOW 9 was the last volume to be available as a single CD. Since NOW 10 it has been two discs every time.
17. So far the series has featured 602 number 1 hits
18. Bestselling NOW Album is NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL CHRISTMAS (4.3m)
19. Madonna had never allowed any of her tracks to appear on a NOW – until her song Into The Groove features on the series’ 30th anniversary edition.
20. Oasis’s Songbird was the shortest song to make the NOW! grade, at 2.04 minutes
21. The longest track on any NOW album is Don McLean’s American Pie at 8.34 minutes
22. U2 had the longest gap between first on 1984’s Now 4 and last appearance on Now 99 in 2018
23. Willow Smith on NOW 78 with Whip My Hair was the youngest to have appeared on a Now album at just nine years old
24. Since Run DMC vs. Jason Nevins on NOW 39 there have been thirty ‘versus’ couplings.
25. Hollywood actors who have appeared on NOW include; Will Smith (Now 26 with D J Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Boom Shake The Room ), Ewan McGregor (NOW 38 with PF Project feat Ewan McGregor – Choose Life ), Kate Winslet (NOW 50) and Nicole Kidman (NOW 51 with Robbie Williams – Something Stupid) and Brittany Murphy (NOW 64 with Paul Oakenfold – Faster Kill Pussycat)
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