Source: TheObserver
The egalitarian compilation series which sells more than the top 20 albums
combined is 25 years old. Johnny Dee celebrates a British music institution
If you're under 40 it's possible for people to tell your age from just two
cultural signposts - your favourite Grange Hill character and your first NOW
That's What I Call Music album. Both place you at around your 10th birthday
when Gran gets confused in the CD section at WH Smith and buys you whatever
there's the biggest display of.
It seems as if the NOW albums have always been with us, perfectly reflecting
the chart music of each era - epic in the 80s, all boy bands and Britpop in
the 90s and an incongruous mix of indie and R&B today. Unlike other
compilations, though, there has always been something oddly eclectic about
the NOW That's What I Call Music series with bands like the Smiths sitting
uncomfortably between Howard Jones and Fiction Factory in 1984, the
Libertines sharing CD space with Ronan Keating and Duncan James in 2004
right up to the Black Kids' appearance on the new NOW 70. NME and John Peel
may have laid claim to shaping alternative music tastes over the decades but
it's just as likely that a NOW album gave many of us our first ownership of
hip-hop, acid house or alt-rock.
Today, comps like NTWICM are propping up an ailing music industry; in its
first week of release the current edition sold 383,002 copies, more than the
top 20 bestselling albums combined.
It wasn't always so respectable: in the 70s, major labels viewed
compilations as cheap and nasty products that they wanted nothing to do
with. Instead independents such as K-Tel, Arcade and Ronco would license
songs and cram as many hits as possible on to two sides of cheap vinyl -
often cropping tracks down to two minutes to squeeze them all in. Worse
still were the Top Of The Pops comps on Pickwick, which cost 99p and
featured hastily assembled cover versions.
Despite massive sales, it took until 1983 for the mainstream music biz to
recognise these albums' potential. Richard Branson, then still boss of
Virgin records, was chairing a meeting in his office when the revolutionary
suggestion was made that they release all their hit singles of that year on
one album. Better still, if they got EMI involved they could make it a
double album. Brilliant. But what to call it? Glancing around Branson's
office for inspiration someone noticed a poster produced by Danish Bacon
Factories featuring a cartoon pig craning his ear to the sound of a cockerel
with the accompanying caption "NOW that's what I call music". Quite why or
how Branson owned such an item remains a mystery but it gave birth to a
British music legend. Nowadays we take TV-advertised compilations for
granted, but then the chance of being able to own 30 songs on one album or
cassette including 11 number ones was unprecedented.
Since 1983, the Now albums have consistently outsold any single artist and
spawned versions from Indonesia to New Zealand. Like Elton, Oasis and Rod
they're a British institution; maybe next time the Brits roll around they
could get a Lifetime Achievement award. Who to accept it would pose a
problem - Limahl, Robbie, Phil Collins and Dizzee Rascal all share equal
responsibility in this egalitarian success story. Though Richard Branson in
a pig costume might work.
NOW that's what I call trivia!
One artist you'll never find on a NOW compilation
Madonna, who has compilations of her own to sell and refuses to sully her
good name. When NTWICM 10 (which included her ex-beau Jellybean's hit The
Real Thing) helped keep her off the top of the album charts it led to NOW
and all other chart-hogging various artists albums being sectioned to their
own private top 20 island.
First track ever
Phil Collins - You Can't Hurry Love
The best-selling volume
NOW 44 sold 2.3m copies in 1999, making it the joint 41st bestselling album
in the UK of all time. Such was the power of Vengaboys' We're Going To Ibiza
and Liquid Child's Diving Faces.
The unsung hero of NOW
Ashley Abram - a singles buyer for Woolworths and others in the mid-80s. He
was employed by Branson after the success of the first album as an
independent middleman to keep all the labels happy and has compiled every
volume ever since. You'll find his company, Box Music, involved in dozens of
other compilation brands.
The first CD
NOW 4 came out as a 15 track CD (the double LP and tape editions contained
32 tracks). Mint copies on eBay fetch around £500.
The rival
Virgin/EMI's NOW albums were challenged by the WEA/CBS Hits titles of
1984-89. The rival series petered out after Hits 10, only to re-emerge with
titles like Huge Hits, presumably as some marketing expert realised "hits"
rhymed with "t*ts".
Edited highlights
Occasionally songs are edited to cut out swear words and lengthy fades. This
was particularly sad for Mark Owen, who had 30 seconds sliced from his track
Four Minute Warning. A song that had been recorded to last exactly four
minutes.
Rewriting history
Errors in the CD booklets are legend. This from Volume 57 is our favourite:
"Glasgow's Franz Ferdinand, as all historians kNOW, take their name from the
Austrian Archduke whose murder kick-started World War 2"
As seen on TV
Tracey Ullman voiced the first TV advert before being replaced by Gary
Crowley. Next Brian Glover became the voice of the NOW pig, a major role he
took to with customary Yorkshire grit selling "30 original chart hits on one
posh double album". By Volume 4 his days were already numbered as he
struggled with high-pitched over-excitement listing tracks by "Giorgio
Moroder and Philip Oak-eeeeeee". David "Kid" Jensen became the voice of NOW
until Volume 21 when he was replaced by the mellow tones of Mark "Goody
bags" Goodier.
Longest-running consecutive artist
Girls Aloud (13 volumes - NOW 54 to 66). Tom Jones features six times,
always with someone else
Total number of tracks
2,693
The evolution of the NOW covers...
1. The golden age
The first cover featured photos of all the artists pasted into the word
"NOW". Very tasteful.
2. Year Of The Pig
The cartoon pig found his way onto the covers of 3,4 and 5 alongside three
coloured balls bearing the legend "NOW" and a lightning flash for added
subtlety.
3. The computer age
NOW 7 (August 1986) to NOW 15 (August 1989) included the familiar balls and
flash laid over generic desktop screensaver images of sand, sea and space.
4. The superhero era
From 1991 until the present day heroic giant capitals have heralded each new
instalment of the NOW story along with seasonally themed tat (summer beach
balls, fairylights for Christmas. etc).
Most popular NOW artists
1 Robbie Williams (28 hits, 4 with Take That)
2 Kylie Minogue (21 appearances)
3 U2 (18 appearances)
4 Girls Aloud (17 appearances)
5 Britney Spears, Queen, Tina Turner, UB40 (15 appearances)
Here are the adverts for Nows 1-13.
You can view more here
uk.youtube.com/user/nowmusic25Now 1
Now 2
Now 3
Now 4
Now 6
Now 7
Now 8
Now 9
Now 10
Now 11
Now 12
Now 13