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Posted by: awardinary 15th May 2017, 05:17 PM

Images

http://imageshack.com/f/poBk8b7Lj http://imageshack.com/f/pmi5k1ROj

http://imageshack.com/f/pnC7n9sgj

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Details

Released: 23rd November 1998
Origin: United Kingdom
Label: Virgin / EMI / Polygram
Format: Double CD & Double Cassette
Duration: 2:36:08 (156 minutes 8 seconds)
Tracks: 42
#1’s: 8
Chart Peak: #1 (7 weeks)
Sales: 1,145,000 (5x Platinum)

Tracklisting

1. Boyzone – No Matter What 4:33 {1}
2. Robbie Williams – Millennium 3:33 {1}
3. The Beautiful South – Perfect 10 3:39 {2}
4. U2 – Sweetest Thing 3:02 {3}
5. Culture Club – I Just Wanna Be Loved 3:44 {4}
6. Ace Of Base – Life Is A Flower 3:34 {5}
7. Jennifer Paige – Crush 3:11 {4}
8. Steps – Heartbeat 4:24 {1}
9. Honeyz – Finally Found 4:06 {4}
10. E17 – Each Time 3:57 {2}
11. Kele Le Roc – Little Bit Of Lovin' 4:04 {8}
12. Sweetbox – Everything's Gonna Be Alright 3:11 {5}
13. UB40 – Come Back Darling 3:28 {10}
14. Melanie B feat. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott – I Want You Back 3:27 {1}
15. All Saints – Bootie Call 3:26 {1}
16. Aqua – Turn Back Time 3:57 {1}
17. Spice Girls – Too Much 3:53 {1}
18. Lutricia McNeal – Someone Loves You Honey 2:54 {9}
19. Lighthouse Family – Question Of Faith 3:51 {21}
20. Phil Collins – True Colours 3:52 {26}
21. Janet Jackson – Every Time 4:16 {46}
22. Billie – Girlfriend 3:56 {1}
23. 911 – More Than A Woman 3:13 {2}
24. T-Spoon – Sex On The Beach 3:40 {2}
25. The Tamperer feat. Maya – If You Buy This Record Your Life Will Be Better 3:27 {3}
26. Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You 4:21 {2}
27. Vengaboys – Up And Down 3:45 {4}
28. Sash! feat. Shannon – Move Mania 3:46 {8}
29. Touch & Go – Would You...? 3:10 {3}
30. The Corrs – Dreams (Tee's Radio Mix) 3:54 {6}
31. The Cardigans – My Favourite Game 3:37 {14}
32. James – Sit Down '98 3:47 {7}
33. Fatboy Slim – Gangster Trippin' 3:32 {3}
34. Eagle-Eye Cherry – Falling In Love Again 3:31 {8}
35. Sheryl Crow – My Favourite Mistake 4:05 {9}
36. Robbie Williams – No Regrets 4:44 {4}
37. Space – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place 3:20 {20}
38. Embrace – My Weakness Is None Of Your Business 3:19 {9}
39. Alisha's Attic – The Incidentals 3:09 {13}
40. Deetah – Relax 3:48 {11}
41. R. Kelly feat. Keith Murray – Home Alone 4:13 {17}
42. Sham Rock – Tell Me Ma 3:49 {13}

Key
Tracks highlighted red were official UK #1’s.
Tracks with an asterisk (*) next to their title have also been included in special releases from the series.
The track duration has been highlighted cyan.
Bracketed numbers refer to highest chart position reached.

Miscellaneous Facts

Track Most Weeks At #1: Boyzone – No Matter What (3 weeks)
Lowest Charting Track: Janet Jackson – Every Time {46}
Longest Song: Robbie Williams – No Regrets 4:44
Shortest Song: Lutricia McNeal – Someone Loves You Honey 2:54
Edited Tracks: Unknown
Unedited Tracks: Unknown
Inlay Mistakes: None
Other Facts: N/A

On This Day In History

No music news to report for 23rd November 1998.

Other Resources

http://www.nowmusic.com
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_That%27s_What_I_Call_Music!_41_(UK_series)
http://www.everyhit.com/number5.html
http://www.brandtanim.co.uk/archive/nowhistory.htm
http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=167186

Posted by: awardinary 15th May 2017, 05:18 PM

Andrew's Review

Now That's What I Call Music! 41 or Now 41 was the final instalment for 1998. It features 42 tracks and 8 UK #1 singles. Now 41 introduced us for the first time to the likes of Honeyz, Kele Le Roc, Vengaboys, The Corrs and Deetah.

5 UK #1 singles didn't feature from this era which were Manic Street Preachers – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, B*Witched – Rollercoaster, Spacedust – Gym & Tonic and Cher – Believe (this would however feature on the next volume). It can also be said that Tragedy from Steps was missing but this was included a year later. Along with these #1 omissions, there was also a number of other casualties. Sash! had another big hit with Tina Cousins called Mysterious Times which didn't make the cut. Savage Garden were once again ignored for their single To The Moon And Back. Steps had a #2 summer hit with One For Sorrow. The love ballad of 1998 from Aerosmith – I Don't Want To Miss A Thing was also snubbed. Also missing was Lauren Hill's debut and highest charting single Doo Wop (That Thing), Natalie Imbruglia – Smoke, George Michael – Outside, Stereophonics – The Bartender And The Thief and Shania Twain – From This Moment On.

As for those artists we would only hear from on this one occasion, that included Jennifer Paige, Sweetbox, T-Spoon, Stardust, Touch & Go and Sham Rock.

Artwork Rating: 6/10 Good
Definitely a festive feel to this cover. Perhaps that because of the evident use of what appear to be baubles reflecting the logo from all angles. It's nice to see a red design which was a lacking colour from the late 90's covers.

Disc 1 Favourite: Kele Le Roc – Little Bit Of Lovin'
Such a sweet voice. I always found this ballad to be a beautiful pop record. It's a shame Kele Le Roc didn't have a long spanning music career as I'm sure she would have sold lots of records.

Disc 2 Favourite: Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
A one hit wonder which was a big hit in late 1998. This feel good song sounds like something which Jamiroquai would produce. A great song to drive to.

Overall Rating: 6/10 Good
There's a lot that could be done to improve this volume, and a lot of the songs included are just forgotten hits now. Personally I would have liked to have seen a couple more #1 hits and a few more new introductions to the series too.

Andrew's Best 5 (as of May 2017)
1. Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
2. T-Spoon – Sex On The Beach
3. Kele Le Roc – Little Bit Of Lovin'
4. Sweetbox – Everything's Gonna Be Alright
5. Steps – Heartbeat

Andrew's Worst 5 (as of May 2017)
1. Lighthouse Family – Question Of Faith
2. Sham Rock – Tell Me Ma
3. Lutricia McNeal – Someone Loves You Honey
4. Eagle-Eye Cherry – Falling In Love Again
5. Embrace – My Weakness Is None Of Your Business

Posted by: Dobbo 15th May 2017, 05:43 PM

Artwork: I like it, interesting choice of a colours for a winter edition! 7/10

Disc 1: Perfect 10 - this is such a catchy track, and I love the lyrics

Disc 2: Tell Me Ma - Huge NON-guilty pleasure, one of the jolliest songs of all time!

Overall: Disc 1 is really poor, Disc 2 contains some quality songs. I'll go 6/10.

Posted by: lewistgreen 15th May 2017, 08:17 PM

Oh I've been waiting for this!

This was the first ever NOW album I got and it was for Christmas when I was 6! So it holds some great memories for me.

Gone for Spice Girls (Disc 1) and Billie (Disc 2), though Deetah's Relax is a firm favourite too!

Posted by: HarryApa 15th May 2017, 11:56 PM

Artwork 4/10 I don't really like it oops
Disc 1: Jenifer Page - Crush (A lot to choose from but gosh I love this song )
Disc 2: Stardust - Nothing Sounds Better than you (TUNE)!

Overall 8/10

Posted by: danG 16th May 2017, 05:40 PM

Artwork: 6/10
Disc One: Robbie Williams - Millennium
Disc Two: Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You
Overall: 5/10 (disc one really lets it down)

Here is the Now 41 Tracklist recap

Posted by: DalekTurret32 19th May 2017, 09:44 PM

Favourites:

Millenium (this sampled a track from the You Only Live Twice soundtrack)
Perfect 10
Sweetest Thing
Come Back Darling
I Want You Back
Turn Back Time (from the Sliding Doors soundtrack)
Someone Loves You Honey
Music Sounds Better With You (club classic.)
Up and Down, Up and Down, Up and Down (The next NOW album will have another Venga song, the other Venga song is the one that was used in that viral Six Flags advert)
Move Mania
Dreams
My Favourite Game
Sit Down '98 (Apollo 440 Remix) (I like the original 1988 version, 1991 version and this remix)
Gangster Tripping
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (I like both this and the original Animals version [the latter of which I have on 7-inch])
My Weakness Is None Of Your Business
Home Alone

Posted by: ThePensmith 21st May 2017, 01:40 PM

This was a great edition this one! With hindsight though a lot of the '98 Nows were let down by lacking the big Sony owned hits of the time (hello to you, B*Witched). I picked Boyzone from Disc 1 and Billie from Disc 2, Honeyz and The Corrs a close second respectively.

Posted by: gooddelta 21st May 2017, 02:48 PM

I ADORE this album. I could easily listen from Boyzone through to (and including) Lutricia McNeal on Disc 1 without skipping - well, maybe only UB40.

I'm glad the advert above pretty much backs up what I was saying a few weeks ago in another thread about Steps' Heartbeat being a bigger deal at the time than people make it out to be. I know Tragedy wasn't on this album but Heartbeat was still popular enough to be featured in its own right on the advert for the biggest compilation of the year. Some people treat the song like it's completely unknown and wouldn't have been a smash without Tragedy tacked onto it, but that really wasn't the case at all, Heartbeat was everywhere in November/December 1998 too. Of course Tragedy has completely and utterly overshadowed it since, but they had more equal footing upon release.

I digress - anyway, I went for the wonderful Life Is A Flower on Disc 1 and Dreams on Disc 2 <3

Posted by: Jade 21st May 2017, 05:03 PM

I went for Robbie's 'Millennium' as my disc 1 favourite! I enjoy the grandeur bond-esque production and would class it as one of his best songs. 'Too Much' by Spice Girls runs it close, though! I usually love All Saints but 'Bootie Call' is one of their weaker hits. Then disc 2 houses my favourite song on the entire compilation - the sublime 'Music Sounds Better With You' by Stardust! I adore the song and have always appreciated that the music video featured a chart show *.* A shame that it's not properly on Spotify, instead on there by an artist called Lushlife not even a fake version, it's the actual song ;o surprised it hasn't been taken down. Stardust to put it on there please so it stops scrobbling as Lushlife

Posted by: ThePensmith 21st May 2017, 06:18 PM

I was about to say Heartbeat was the more plugged of the two singles initially. It was only once they performed Tragedy at that year's Smash Hits Poll Winners in December that it really caught on and did as you say, overtake Heartbeat.

I remember going into school the day after it went out - our last week before the Christmas break - and when we were allowed to bring in our favourite CDs on the last day of term everyone was doing the dance routine. It caught on like wildfire!

I wasn't in the least bit surprised when the single went to #1 in the new year. I remember Radio 1 started playing Tragedy exclusively on the top 40 after it went to #1 and for the rest of its chart run. In fact I found the original episode recently on MixPod where Mark Goodier rings up Lee to tell them they're number one: https://m.mixcloud.com/marksplace_UK/uk-top-40-with-mark-goodier-3rd-january-1999-pt3/

Posted by: gooddelta 21st May 2017, 07:40 PM

Aaaah, memories <3 This countdown was only two months into my newfound obsession and at the point when nearly every song I heard sounded amazing (but for me 1998/1999 were just amazing). Love hearing all those old chart jingles again

Posted by: Hide&Seek 1st July 2017, 08:22 PM

Disc 1 faves :

1. Honeyz – Finally Found
2. Lutricia McNeal – Someone Loves You Honey
3. Spice Girls – Too Much
4. Jennifer Paige – Crush
5. Ace Of Base – Life Is A Flower


Disc 2 faves :

1. Sash! feat. Shannon – Move Mania
2. Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
3. The Tamperer feat. Maya – If You Buy This Record Your Life Will Be Better
4. T-Spoon – Sex On The Beach
5. Billie – Girlfriend