All together Now
Now that’s what I call a milestone! MARION McMULLEN looks back on 35 years of hits as Now That’s What I Call Music 100 is released
PHIL COLLINS warned “You can’t hurry love” as his hit song became the first track on the inaugural Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation album. The year was 1983 and Cabbage Patch dolls and plastic Swatch watches were all the rage and the latest buzz words were toy boy and chatline. There were only four television channels in the UK... and no mobile phones.
Now That’s What I Call Music! was released on vinyl and audio cassette and ended up topping the UK album charts for five weeks.
The first Now compilation 35 years ago sold 1.1 million copies and was packed with hits from 28 artists with Kajagoogoo, UB40 and Culture Club all boasting two songs on the album. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack also doubled up for the duet Tonight, I Celebrate My Love.
Duran Duran were asking Is There Something I Should Know, Heaven 17 were offering Temptation and Bonnie Tyler was having a Total Eclipse Of The Heart.
Rod Stewart was also singing about Baby Jane alongside The Cure’s Love Cats and comedy favourite Tracey Ullman and They Don’t Know.
Or if that did not appeal there was Tina Turner and Let’s Stay Together, Mike Oldfield’s Moonlight Shadow or Paul Young singing Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home).
Chances are you have had one of the Now albums in your record collection. More than half of the UK population have bought – or been given – a Now compilation album in the years since the first was released.
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, but 98 out of the 99 albums released so far have all reached number one in the official UK charts.
Now That’s What I Call Music! 4 was the first volume to be released on CD and featured just 15 songs, compared to 32 on the LPs and cassette. It is the only volume that did not get to number one, but it did spend two weeks at number two. The most successful themed compilation was Now That’s What I Call Christmas which sold 4.3 million copies.
The compilations have spent a staggering 654 weeks at number one and it would take more than 250 hours to listen to all 100 albums. Hollywood actors who have appeared on the albums over the last 35 years 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 – What If ) and Nicole Kidman (Now 51 with Robbie Williams – Something Stupid) and Brittany Murphy (Now 64 with Paul Oakenfold – Faster Kill Pussycat). Robbie Williams holds the record for the most appearances – 30 times with Take That hits such as Pray and It Only Takes A Minute – and solo ventures like Angels and Millennium. Rihanna places second with 27 appearances and Calvin Harris takes third with 26 times.
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.
And U2 had the longest gap between their first appearance in 1984’s Now 4 to their appearance on Now 99 this year. Madonna had never allowed any of her tracks to appear on a Now compilation until her song Into The Groove featured on the series’ 30th anniversary edition. Oasis’s Songbird is the shortest song to make the grade at two minutes four seconds and the longest on any of the albums is Don McLean’s American Pie at eight minutes 34seconds
Willow Smith on Now 78 with Whip My Hair was the youngest to be featured on an album and was just nine years old at the time.
The 100 albums have featured more than 2,000 artists singing 602 number one hits since 1983.
Cassette tapes ceased in 2006 with the final cassette being Now 64 and the first to be released as download was Now 62 in 2005. MiniDiscs started with Now 43 in 1999 and ended just two years later with Now 48 in 2001.
The musical institution has gone on to become the biggest selling compilation brand in the world with global success in more than 60 countries including America, South Korea and New Zealand.
Now That’s What I Call Music 100 also pays tribute to the first album with girl band MU4 singing You Can’t Hurry Love by The Supremes... the classic song covered by Phil Collins to open the 1983 album.
■ Now That’s What I Call Music 100 is released on Friday, July 20. Now That’s What I Call Music 1 is being reissued on CD, cassette and vinyl. Go to nowmusic.com for more details.