Now That's What I Call Music (Nostalgia)

I was quite surprised how quickly the releases came considering the vinyl delay, I’m assuming they’ve already booked the pressing slots since all they really have to do it is send the tracks once happy with the running order.

 

My Now 11 and Now 111 have arrived. Obviously more excited about the latter.

 

What's missing from NOW 11?
I've just picked up NOW 18 Double CD from my local charity shop for 50p.
The cover's battered but the booklet and CD are in excellent condition!
Why are there so many Robbie Williams CD in these charity stores?

 

Eddy Grant and Whitesnake (again).

NOW18 is a strong set, just never liked the design.

 

Praise be for CD2 and it's frequent dance focus. E'voking amazing memz.

 

Listening to Now 11 and some thoughts.

Jermaine Stewart really shouldn't be thought of as a one hit wonder as 'Say it again' really is a great single, and once remixed, 'Get lucky' was a bop too.

Billy Ocean's 'Get outta my dreams' whilst VERY dodgy lyrically is a massive hook laden bop. He'd obviously wanted to do another 'When the going gets tough' but added a bit of a Living in a box/PWL bounce to it.

I usually skip the oldies but 'C'mon everybody' is a great track. Even Morrissey back then was producing great singles and 'Suedehead', whilst not deviating too far from The Smiths template was a great start.

Marti Pellow sounds like a pub singer on 'Angel eyes' which is a shame as it's a good song but he just honks all over it.

Whilst my least favourite Johnny hates Jazz single, 'Turn back the clock' does have that late 80s radio charm about it, although I suspect Mike and the mechanic's awful 'Living years' was inspired by it.

CD2 would have been right up my street in 88 except for the awful stutter rap. I had the biggest crush on Elisa Fiorillo back then and 'Who found who' is absolute perfection. I've had so many of the songs on CD2 in poor quality and they sound pristine in the quality of this reissue. 'Rock da house' really deserves to be up there with the likes of 'Good life' in eternal dance anthems.

 

It's true that Marti's vocal on Angel Eyes is like a pub singer pastiche.

 

Paul Shane obviously studied Marti's 'Bay-beh' ahead of his fateful Pebble Mill appearance.

 

I’m having a Now 11 day with my Redux playlist and it really is a treat. I couldn’t even make a decent Now 111 Redux playlist without adding lots of none Top 100 singles, so it speaks volumes:

Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind
Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is a Place On Earth
Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams
Jermaine Stewart - Say It Again
Bros - I Owe U Nothing
The Primitives - Crash
Morrissey - Suedehead
Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere
Wet Wet Wet - Angel Eyes
Johnny Hates Jazz - Turn Back the Clock
T’Pau - Valentine
A-Ha - Stay On These Roads
Sinead O Connor - Mankinda
Cher - I Found Someone
George Michael - Father Figure

Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky
Mel & Kim - That’s the Way It Is
Joyce Sims - Come Into My Life
Jellybean - Who Found Who
Bananarama - I Can’t Help It
Debbie Gibson - Only In My Dreams
Eighth Wonder - I’m Not Scared
Vanessa Paradis - Joe Le Taxi
Rick Astley - Together Forever
Cold cut - Doctor In the House
Krush- House Arrest
Jack N Chill - The Jack That House
Taylor Dayne - Tell It To My Heart
Belinda Carlisle - I Get Weak
Clinic Fisher - Rise to the Occassion

 

Oooooommmmmmmmwaaaaaaaaaah.

 

Now Yearbook 81 is showing up on Amazon so it looks like they’re continuing to work backwards.

 

Wonder why - perhaps they're having difficulty clearing something essential for '85 and want to keep trying? Glad they're continuing, anyway.

 

Yes it would have made more sense to do 85 next and then maybe 81 since fans have been wanting 85 since 84 came out.

 

Here is that tracklisting for NOW 1981 Due May 20th

 

1981 really was a classic year.

Not keen on the red colour scheme.

 

Think this the first time I've ever seen Olivia's 'Physical' appear on any kind of compilation. It's a solid track listing in my opinion, but I wish they went forward with Yearbook 85 instead of going backwards. Maybe they're trying to get a certain song to appear on '85

 

It's overloading my retinas.

Will this series come to a halt when it comes to the later 80s like those Top Of The Pops comps that ended with '86?

 

I don't see why they wouldn't do a Yearbook for every year of the 80s. I'm particularly keen to get 1988 (and Extra) - I need Taja Sevelle's Love Is Contagious on a compilation CD!

 

They started with 1983, then 1984 followed.
After 1984, 1982 came.
Now it's 1981.
I think next one ill be 1985, then 1980 then 1986
Or 1980, 1985 and 1986.
I really hope they don't go into 1970s !

 

Personally I'd have continued on and done 1985-1989, then surprised us all and gone back and done 1982 and 1981 (probably 1980 will follow too).

I don't think the NOW brand should go into the 70s but I won't be buying them anyway!