R2OK!

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

From Music Week:

The team behind Now! is following the biggest first-week sales in the compilation’s history with a programme of activity to mark the brand’s 25th anniversary.

The planned celebrations this autumn will include an ITV special tentatively called Now That’s What I Call Music! 1983, which will celebrate the birth of the world’s most successful compilations series by looking at the acts who featured on the first album a quarter of a century ago.

That double album, issued in December 1983 by the then-separate Virgin and EMI, was groundbreaking in being the first such TV-advertised hits set released by frontline, repertoire-generating labels rather than a compilations specialist such as K-Tel or Ronco.

Featuring 30 tracks, including hits by Phil Collins, Culture Club, Duran Duran and Kajagoogoo, the compilation spent five weeks at number one on what was then a combined albums chart. It was followed by all but one of the regular albums reaching number one on, initially, the general albums chart and then the spin-off compilations chart, which was launched in 1989 – mainly because the likes of Now! were “clogging up” the albums countdown.

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations, EMI commercial marketing co-managing director Peter Duckworth reveals the first Now! will be made available on CD for the first time, featuring cardboard packaging to reflect its original release as a vinyl album, while a new compilation, Now! 25 Years, will sum up the first two-and-half decades of the brand across three CDs.

In the same month Now! 71 will also appear, following up what have been the two fastest-selling albums in the series so far.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

"Biggest first week's sale in its history". The fact that Tesco discounted it down to £9.70, and that it's the one thing that's cheaper to buy physically than download off itunes (even by cherrypicking) may have something to do with it. Actually, I thought that Now 70, like most of the ones issued in summer, was a pretty poor selection.

EMI have issued two Now 1983s before, in 1993 and 1999, with similar tracklistings. Unless anyone specifically wants a facsimile of the first Now, they'd be as well to check their existing collection. Most of the records from that first compiltion (tracks listed here - http://www.nowmusic.com/newsite/nowmusic_item.htm?view=javascript&item=1098943&year=1983&packshot=/ms/imagerepository/releaseimagespublic/1122696&detail=all ) - can be heard often on Radio 2 today. 1983 wasn't a particularly good year!
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Ron

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

Now 70 wasn't the greatest of tracklistings - some of the more recent volumes can be hit or miss and this one veers towards the latter.

One of the interesting things looking at those early volumes is that even a quarter of a century on you would recognise most of the tracks, even the ones that were minor hits. Whereas maybe 4 or 5 years ago looking at the then-current volumes I would find myself struggling to remember songs which had been Top 3 hits.

The Now 1 CD will be aimed at the collectors market I guess. There are many people who own the whole set of 70 but over different formats and I know from the official website messageboard that there is a demand for CD re-issues of the earlier albums, particularly the first 10 or so.

SantaFefan · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject:

Blimey.. looking through that track listing, I could happily never hear any of them again apart from one.. and I'm possibly embarrassed to say it's Tracey Ullman's They Don't Know!! Embarassed

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13/8/07
I have heard how radio should be.

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Yes, Shaky, subject to price I might be interested if they reissued the first ten - I only started from number 10, which I think was the first one where the CD was the full double, rather than being a single, abridged, version of the double LP.
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Ron

Shaky Fan · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 628

Given that they've gone for sets of 10 albums with the 10th anniversary series and an even bigger series for the millenium I guess its a possibility. Anything from around Now 18 onwards can be picked up at a fairly reasonable price on ebay, and I've also found Now 13 & Now 16 without breaking the bank.