Just now, SuperWooper said:

I don't care. NOW have done it in the past - waaaaaay before streaming was a thing. Look at 34/57 - Peter Andre. 2/26 - Frankie Goes to Hollywood. 6/23 - Simple Minds.

And I disagreed with those. A dance mix of Relax charted in 1993 but they made the mistake and used the original version. You might agree with track repetition but I disagree with it

Edited Tuesday at 11:174 days by Hadji

1 minute ago, SuperWooper said:

I don't care. NOW have done it in the past - waaaaaay before streaming was a thing. Look at 34/57 - Peter Andre. 2/26 - Frankie Goes to Hollywood. 6/23 - Simple Minds.

Whenever past songs either reach a new peak or a similar high position many years later, they do tend to be recycled on a later album. Oasis' 'Live Forever': 33 and 99, N-Trance's 'Set You Free': 30 and 50, and Tom Odell's 'Another Love': 85 and 113.

1 minute ago, Hadji said:

And I disagreed with those. A dance mix of Relax charted in 1993 but they made the mistake and used the original version

MISSING THE POINT (once again). I can't deal with this anymore - you have ruined this thread for me. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who agrees with that.

Carry on moaning about this, but I for one am gonna ignore EVERYTHING you have to say in here. Got enough misery in the world, I don't need it on a forum thread about the NOW series.

Just now, Harrison FB said:

Whenever past songs either reach a new peak or a similar high position many years later, they do tend to be recycled on a later album. Oasis' 'Live Forever': 33 and 99, N-Trance's 'Set You Free': 30 and 50, and Tom Odell's 'Another Love': 85 and 113.

Set You Free charted in 2001 because of the Rob Searle remix. I’d have agreed with its inclusion on Now 50 if it was that remix instead of the original. Live Forever didn’t reach a new peak in 2018. It was performed at the BRITs and it reached a new peak in 2024

Edited Tuesday at 11:244 days by Hadji

1 minute ago, SuperWooper said:

MISSING THE POINT (once again). I can't deal with this anymore - you have ruined this thread for me. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who agrees with that.

Carry on moaning about this, but I for one am gonna ignore EVERYTHING you have to say in here. Got enough misery in the world, I don't need it on a forum thread about the NOW series.

You know where the door is

Edited Tuesday at 11:254 days by Hadji

Set You Free to be fair was dual repromoted in 2001. CD1 lead with the Rob Searle remix and CD2 with the 1995 hit version, and Kelly Llorenna performed the original on Top Of The Pops at the time too. I expect Now chose to include the original hit version over the remix as 50 was such a celebratory kind of release so every familiar big hit helped to sell it. Now Dance 2002 featured the Rob Searle remix so they were aware of its existence.

14 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Set You Free to be fair was dual repromoted in 2001. CD1 lead with the Rob Searle remix and CD2 with the 1995 hit version, and Kelly Llorenna performed the original on Top Of The Pops at the time too. I expect Now chose to include the original hit version over the remix as 50 was such a celebratory kind of release so every familiar big hit helped to sell it. Now Dance 2002 featured the Rob Searle remix so they were aware of its existence.

No denying that NOW Dance 2002 is a great album; was #1 in the album charts for 2 weeks back then! And besides, I'm glad I was able to own it myself and have a lot of hidden gems!

24 minutes ago, Hadji said:

You know where the door is

Can you stop with this bombardment, please? I get your disapproval of songs being recycled and all, but you must keep it to yourself. The last thing you want to happen is to be kicked from this server!

10 minutes ago, Harrison FB said:

No denying that NOW Dance 2002 is a great album; was #1 in the album charts for 2 weeks back then! And besides, I'm glad I was able to own it myself and have a lot of hidden gems!

Yes I loved it too, it's the first one I think I bought full price from the series rather than waiting for a reduction as I was so impressed by the tracklist. Some great pop remixes on it, and dance songs that didn't make it onto the main Now.

1 hour ago, awardinary said:

In your opinion Hadji, what is the best compiled Now That's What I Call Music compilation where you feel the compilers did a decent job at including as many hits at the time with a variety of genres well represented, together with a beautiful artwork?

I ask @T Boy the same question just so we have something to compare Hadji's response to.

But I believe they do their best job that they can every time. That doesn’t mean I love the tracklists, it’s just an acknowledgment of the circumstances.

We really should stop indulging Hadji at this point-this is a poster who believes that Now doesn’t include Taylor Swift because they just don’t want to. Probably thinks if he’d been able to review bomb in the 2000s, they’d have relented and included Madonna.

On the topic of reusing tracks. Whilst I do understand that the reusing of old NOW tracks on later NOW albums in the numbered series is a bit redundant to collectors, on the outside looking in - casual listeners, regular pop fans who probably don't usually invest in the numbered NOWs - might see Sophie's 'Murder On The Dancefloor' on NOW 117 whilst browsing HMV and think "OMG yes this was on Saltburn!" and it may persuade them to get the entire comp to explore other tracks. That same buyer may not have even looked at NOW 51, or any of the NOW albums up to that point. It's how a lot of younger music lovers have never heard the song until they watched Saltburn and launched that song into the Top 10 again by streaming.

In a roundabout way, that one NOW album may have converted someone into becoming a NOW fan, or even a collector.

11 minutes ago, T Boy said:

But I believe they do their best job that they can every time. That doesn’t mean I love the tracklists, it’s just an acknowledgment of the circumstances.

We really should stop indulging Hadji at this point-this is a poster who believes that Now doesn’t include Taylor Swift because they just don’t want to. Probably thinks if he’d been able to review bomb in the 2000s, they’d have relented and included Madonna.

Madonna licensed her music to the Hits up to the 2000s which is why she didn’t appear. Now albums would’ve been slightly better if Jenny Fisher stayed on to compile the albums. If she compiled the yearbooks, we’d be getting both Queen and George Michael on the same yearbooks

IIRC Jenny Fisher was the subject of mass criticism on Now forums, and on here, during her tenure ("Ashley Abram would never have put four retro tracks at the end of the numbered editions after Now 100", "Ashley would have got more Taylor Swift tracks licensed" etc).

Even if she had stayed on the Yearbooks I can't see that the outcome would be any different as it's clearly Queen/its label and George's label/estate that have requested that slot at some point since she left, not the current compilers putting them first because it's their first choice.

Just now, gooddelta said:

IIRC Jenny Fisher was the subject of mass criticism on Now forums, and on here, during her tenure ("Ashley Abram would never have put four retro tracks at the end of the numbered editions after Now 100", "Ashley would have got more Taylor Swift tracks licensed" etc).

Even if she had stayed on the Yearbooks I can't see that the outcome would be any different as it's clearly Queen/its label and George's label/estate that have requested that slot at some point since she left, not the current compilers putting them first because it's their first choice.

I remember Now 80s Party in 2017 which she compiled and Queen opened disc 1 and Wham! opened disc 2. Same on Now 100 Hits 80s in 2019, Queen were track 1 and Wham! were track 2 behind Queen. And when Ashley Abram compiled, I did wonder if he had an obsession with Rihanna as he seemed to include her on every album he compiled from 62-81 apart from 66 and 73. Jenny Fisher doing the Now throwbacks from 102-104 I disagreed on but she was doing it probably to promote the Now 2 reissue

Edited Tuesday at 13:164 days by Hadji

I think the George/Wham! licensing stipulation has changed more recently than 2019 though. Obviously the Queen Disc 1, Track 1 stipulation is decades old at this point, but George seems to only be in the last five years, since Jenny left.

Rihanna was very prolific in those years Ashley was compiling, so I think if he had the license then he probably wanted to make sure she was on there.

2 hours ago, gooddelta said:

I think the George/Wham! licensing stipulation has changed more recently than 2019 though. Obviously the Queen Disc 1, Track 1 stipulation is decades old at this point, but George seems to only be in the last five years, since Jenny left.

Rihanna was very prolific in those years Ashley was compiling, so I think if he had the license then he probably wanted to make sure she was on there.

The George/Wham! label’s obsession with track 1 started in 2017 just after he died and with Ashley Abram and Rihanna, I’m surprised he chose not to include Rehab on Now 73

Those two Now 18 CD’s from musicmapgie arrived today. They’re both the original fatbox CD’s and seem to be in immaculate condition, they even have the foam inserts. Not bad at all for £3 something each!

On 20/07/2026 at 12:36, Hadji said:

Yeah I did. I even put that people who give it 5 star reviews are the ones who don’t pay attention to the charts

Can I just say something and I don’t usually get involved in disputes, but all the negative reviews are just going to encourage the Now team to discontinue the releases.

15 minutes ago, nowmusic1993 said:

Those two Now 18 CD’s from musicmapgie arrived today. They’re both the original fatbox CD’s and seem to be in immaculate condition, they even have the foam inserts. Not bad at all for £3 something each!

That's a great buy. I finally got hold of Now 19 last year for £25 secondhand and felt like that was a bargain!

In other news, my iTunes review for Now 124 is finally live and has dragged the average rating up from 1 to 2.5 stars. Anyone with an iTunes account, do feel free to add your own reviews if you feel it is worth more than 1 (which objectively it is if you compare the tracklist to the charts and what they had at their disposal to include), and let's try and keep this series going, at least until the Yearbooks are done!

4 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

That's a great buy. I finally got hold of Now 19 last year for £25 secondhand and felt like that was a bargain!

In other news, my iTunes review for Now 124 is finally live and has dragged the average rating up from 1 to 2.5 stars. Anyone with an iTunes account, do feel free to add your own reviews if you feel it is worth more than 1 (which objectively it is if you compare the tracklist to the charts and what they had at their disposal to include), and let's try and keep this series going, at least until the Yearbooks are done!

My Now 19 CD story is tragic😂I wanted it for years and finally found it at a car boot sale for 50p in 2023, but then when I scrapped my old car 2 years ago I accidentally left a few CDs in the glove compartment and that was one of them🤦🏻‍♂️

And I’m going to do the same, it’s not fair on the Now team who are clearly struggling to carry this series on and are keeping it alive purely for collectors who constantly drag it down.