20 hours ago, SuperWooper said:

Wow wow wow! This is brilliant, I also love the artwork. Is it a nod to Gabrielle’s Rise which starts off the real NOW 45 or is it just coincidence?

Thank you 😁 and that’s just a coincidence, but it’s cool how you noticed that!

Ok so do you want my money now to make these for real or...? 🤭🤭

These are honestly just so amazing and legitimately wishing I owned every single one of them for those hits I remember!

When you are done with this incredible series, here's another couple of omission-based challenges for you to try your hand at which I attempted myself at different times...

The first is a bumper spin-off compilation of some of the biggest omissions of the series, put together in a collection of three 20+ track discs/playlists. I made this almost a decade ago I think and this was the result;

On 15/08/2016 at 23:07, awardinary said:

I think I may have posted this somewhere before, but here is a spin-off compilation I wish they would release;

 

Now That's What I Call Omissions!

 

Here is a selection of top chart songs from the past 20 or so years which missed out on being included in the iconic Now Music series. Next to each track is the chart position it peaked to.

 

If a spin off compilation was released with these songs I would definitely buy it!

 

Disc 1

1. Adele – Hello {1}

2. Taylor Swift – Shake It Off {2}

3. Rihanna feat. Drake – Work {2}

4. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz – Thrift Shop {1}

5. JLS feat. Dev – She Makes Me Wanna {1}

6. Blue – Too Close {1}

7. Five – Keep On Movin' {1}

8. Take That – Never Forget {1}

9. The Corrs – Breathless {1}

10. Blondie – Maria {1}

11. Busted – Crashed The Wedding {1}

12. Avril Lavigne – Complicated {3}

13. Jamiroquai – Deeper Underground {1}

14. The Prodigy – Firestarter {1}

15. Nero – Promises {1}

16. Daft Punk – One More Time {2}

17. Lady Gaga feat. Beyoncé – Telephone {1}

18. Alexandra Burke feat. Flo Rida – Bad Boys {1}

19. Holly Valance – Kiss Kiss {1}

20. Kevin Lyttle – Turn Me On {2}

21. Blu Cantrell feat. Sean Paul – Breathe {1}

22. Jennifer Lopez – Love Don't Cost A Thing {1}

23. Christina Aguilera – Genie In A Bottle {1}

24. The Weeknd – Earned It {4}

 

Disc 2

1. Elvis vs. JXL – A Little Less Conversation {1}

2. Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake – 4 Minutes {1}

3. Usher feat. Lil' Jon & Ludacris – Yeah {1}

4. Destiny's Child – Independent Woman Part 1 {1}

5. Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger {2}

6. Eminem – The Real Slim Shady {1}

7. D-12 – My Band {2}

8. TLC – No Scrubs {3}

9. Pras Michel feat. Ol' Dirty bast*rd & Mya – Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are) {2}

10. Jay-Z – Hard Knock Life {2}

11. Puff Daddy & Faith Evans feat. 112 – I'll Be Missing You {1}

12. The Fugees – Killing Me Softly {1}

13. Beyoncé – If I Were A Boy {1}

14. Ja Rule feat. R. Kelly & Ashanti – Wonderful {1}

15. Mario Winans feat. Enya & P. Diddy – I Don't Wanna Know {1}

16. Pussycat Dolls – Stickwitu {1}

17. Spice Girls – 2 Become 1 {1}

18. All Saints – Black Coffee {1}

19. Boyz II Men – End Of The Road {1}

20. Mariah Carey – Without You {1}

21. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You {1}

22. Celine Dion – My Heart Will Go On {1}

23. Leona Lewis – Run {1}

 

Disc 3

1. Westlife – World Of Our Own {1}

2. One Direction – Perfect {2}

3. A1 – Same Old Brand New You {1}

4. Another Level – Freak Me {1}

5. B*Witched – Rollercoaster {1}

6. Girls Aloud – Long Hot Summer {7}

7. Britney Spears – (You Drive Me) Crazy {5}

8. Ricky Martin – Livin La Vida Loca {1}

9. Baha Men – Who Let The Dogs Out {2}

10. Shaggy feat. Rayvon – Angel {1}

11. Will Smith – Men In Black {1}

12. Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor {1}

13. Blur – Song 2 {2}

14. My Chemical Romance – Welcome To The Black Parade {1}

15. Muse – Supermassive Black Hole {4}

16. Oasis – All Around The World {1}

17. Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody {2}

18. The Killers – Mr Brightside {10}

19. The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love {2}

20. The Offspring – Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) {1}

21. P!nk – Just Like A Pill {1}

22. Evanescence – Bring Me To Life {1}

23. Michael Jackson – Earth Song {1}

24. Bryan Adams – (Everything I Do) I Do It For You {1}

The other project I did more recently, around the time of the 40th anniversary to mirror what the official release were doing, was to list one song per Now volume that was an omission, and I've added one more every time a new volume is released since;

Would certainly be interested to see your own version only using an artist one time in the entire collection!

3 minutes ago, awardinary said:

Ok so do you want my money now to make these for real or...? 🤭🤭

These are honestly just so amazing and legitimately wishing I owned every single one of them for those hits I remember!

When you are done with this incredible series, here's another couple of omission-based challenges for you to try your hand at which I attempted myself at different times...

The first is a bumper spin-off compilation of some of the biggest omissions of the series, put together in a collection of three 20+ track discs/playlists. I made this almost a decade ago I think and this was the result;

The other project I did more recently, around the time of the 40th anniversary to mirror what the official release were doing, was to list one song per Now volume that was an omission, and I've added one more every time a new volume is released since;

Would certainly be interested to see your own version only using an artist one time in the entire collection!

Thank you so much once again awardinary for your very kind comments. I’m so glad that you’re enjoying this series and there’s so much more to come! It’s really nice that everyone on here appreciates the work and effort I’ve put into these.

I’ve just gone through your playlist and it’s such a brilliant idea, and I’ll definitely be creating a spin-off like you said once this series has finished and I can’t wait to see how it will turn out!

Now 43

Edited January 11Jan 11 by nowmusic1993

Very amusing song title leap on Disc 2 from Track 3 & 4. 😂

Just now, awardinary said:

Very amusing song title leap on Disc 2 from Track 3 & 4. 😂

I didn’t even notice until you pointed it out! 😂

On 09/01/2026 at 11:53, Hadji said:

Got my copy of extra 1991 and the spelling mistake of Dannii on disc 3 has been corrected

Noticed that. It's good they rectified it before release!

Have you had a chance to listen to it yet? What do you think of it? I'll listen to it when I find the time and put together my thoughts!

These alternative albums really make me appreciate the number of hits Now missed for reasons known only to them (e.g. where the licensing shouldn’t have been an issue).

Like Cher’s Strong Enough, the Corrs tracks (maybe Warner put their foot down) and the Steps 1999 singles from Steptacular.

In other news, 21st Century Girls needs a streaming release.

Keep up the great work @nowmusic1993

Edited January 10Jan 10 by gooddelta

6 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

These alternative albums really make me appreciate the number of hits Now missed for reasons known only to them (e.g. where the licensing shouldn’t have been an issue).

Like Cher’s Strong Enough, the Corrs tracks (maybe Warner put their foot down) and the Steps 1999 singles from Steptacular.

In other news, 21st Century Girls needs a streaming release.

Keep up the great work @nowmusic1993

Cheers mate! It is odd that sometimes artists appear and then other times they don’t as you said. It was odd that Steps didn’t appear on Now 43 with Love’s Got A Hold Of My Heart, which would have given Steps a streak of appearances from Now 39-Now 51.

3 minutes ago, nowmusic1993 said:

Cheers mate! It is odd that sometimes artists appear and then other times they don’t as you said. It was odd that Steps didn’t appear on Now 43 with Love’s Got A Hold Of My Heart, which would have given Steps a streak of appearances from Now 39-Now 51.

Yes the label must have withheld it. I think I’d have liked to have seen Tragedy on 43 and a later hits on 44 but it appears it was part of a strategy to save up a lot of big sellers for Now 44, which did work tbf as it was the biggest selling Now ever.

19 hours ago, Tylky said:

Noticed that. It's good they rectified it before release!

Have you had a chance to listen to it yet? What do you think of it? I'll listen to it when I find the time and put together my thoughts!

What has struck me about the album is how many songs I've never heard that I'm coming across. Usually I have this with the Vault albums but not an Extra, especially not from the 90s, so they really have used some very low peakers. The A-ha, Sting, Rain Tree Crow, ABC and Julee Cruise songs and maybe more all missed the top 40, and these songs feel more like Vault territory so I very much doubt they will continue the Vault into the 90s, what would they even include on it to make it sell if they are using up big names with low charting songs on the Extra? I expect they already know that the Vault series is going to remain 80s only which is why we have these non top 40 songs on here.

Still, I'm enjoying the likes of Belinda Carlisle, Chris Rea, Voice of the Beehive, Pet Shop Boys, Kylie, Roxette, Simply Red and even the early Take That single. Can You Dig It?, There's Nothing Like This, Something Got Me Started and Things That Make You Go Hmmm should have been on the main album. Samantha Janus also should have been on the Extra imo, they often do find a space for the UK Eurovision entry somewhere.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by gooddelta

Now 42

Edited January 11Jan 11 by nowmusic1993

2 minutes ago, nowmusic1993 said:

Now 42

That's my favourite one yet I think! ❤️

Just now, awardinary said:

That's my favourite one yet I think! ❤️

That’s great to hear! It was probably the most awkward one to get right with the sequencing!

Another excellent effort.

What was going on with licensing at this point. Neither Now or Hits managing to get so many big songs. Actually, When You're Gone, Changes and When You Believe I'm pretty sure have all still never appeared on any UK compilation. My Name Is was on a Q album in 2001 and that's it.

I created playlists for NOW81 and NOW82 and added some of the main ommissions at the end.

Unfortunately for each compilation one of the songs featured on the NOW's is not available at Spotify:

NOW 81: Gym Class Heroes Feat. Neon Hitch – Get Yourself Back Home

NOW 82: Lawson – When She Was Mine

Edited January 11Jan 11 by DaTilt

1 minute ago, DaTilt said:

I created playlists for NOW81 and NOW82 and added some of the main ommissions at the end.

Unfortunately for each compilation one of the songs featured on the NOW's there is one song not available at Spotify:

NOW 81: Gym Class Heroes Feat. Neon Hitch – Get Yourself Back Home

NOW 82: Lawson – When She Was Mine

I’d have included Jason Mraz on Now 81 as he was originally meant to appear on the album before being replaced by Flo Rida and later appearing on Now 82. Instead of replacing him with Flo Rida on Now 81, they should’ve kept him on there and added Flo Rida as there was room for both songs

Now 41