Now That's What I Call Music!


Now That's What I Call Music! is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music which began in 1983. Spinoff series began for other countries the following year, starting with South Africa, and many other countries worldwide soon followed, expanding into Asia in 1995, then the United States in 1998.
The compilation series was conceived in the office of Virgin Records in London and took its name from a 1930s British advertising poster for Danish bacon featuring a pig saying "Now, That's What I Call Music" as it listened to a chicken singing. The pig became the mascot for the series, making its last regular appearance on Now That's What I Call Music 5, before reappearing on the 100th edition in 2018, and again since 2021.

Original United Kingdom and Ireland series

Conception of ''Now That’s What I Call Music!'' series

In 1983, the ideas of the Now That’s What I Call Music! series were conceived in Richard Branson's Virgin Records offices, in Vernon Yard, near Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London. The co-creators behind this idea were Stephen Navin, Head of Licensing and Business Affairs at Virgin Records from 1979 to 1990, and Jon Webster, General Manager from 1983 to 1988. The concept found resonance with Simon Draper, the Managing Director of Virgin Records from 1979 to 1990.
Despite having so many songs high up in the charts, they were tired of third party labels using their hits and making money out of their success.
They managed to convince EMI, where Peter Jamieson, the Managing Director of EMI Records from 1983 to 1986, was captivated by Virgin’s innovative ideas on a compilation album. The partnership materialised during negotiations on Richard Branson’s boat in Little Venice.

The naming inspiration

Amidst the conception of the series, the name found its roots in a distinctive source. An old 1930s Danish Bacon poster featuring a pig saying "Now, That's What I Call Music" as it listened to a chicken singing, discovered by Branson in an antiques shop not far from their Vernon yard office, where a woman he liked named Joan Templeman was working.
Branson managed to amass an impressive collection of old hand painted tin signs that were covering his houseboat, but instead of adding to his collection, he gifted it to Simon Draper. The poster was hung behind Draper's desk at the Virgin Records office. Branson wrote, "He was notoriously grumpy before breakfast and loved his eggs in the morning, so I bought him the poster, framed it and had it hung behind his desk."
The pig became the mascot for the series, making its last regular appearance on Now That's What I Call Music 5, and made a reappearance on the cover of Now That's What I Call Music! 100 in 2018 and Now That's What I Call Music! 109 in 2021.
Richard Branson later married Joan Templeman in 1989.

Commercial success

The first Now was released on 28 November 1983 and featured 30 UK hit singles from that year on a double vinyl LP or cassette. Although the compilation of recent hit songs into a single release was not a new concept, this was the first time that two major record labels had collaborated on such a venture. Virgin agreed to a deal with EMI, which allowed a greater number of major hits to be included. The album went to number one, and soon after, CBS/WEA's The Hits Album adopted a similar format to Now. The two series co-existed for the rest of the 1980s, and when Universal joined the collaboration, the Now series was more successful commercially. The Out Now series by MCA and Chrysalis was also established as a rival to the series, but was short-lived and lasted only two volumes.
By 1989, Now, Hits, and other various-artist compilation albums were occupying such a large fraction of the UK Albums Chart that a separate UK Compilation Chart was created to restrict the Albums Chart to releases by a single act.
The rate of release settled very quickly to three per year: one release around late March/early April, another around late July and a third around late November. Over a hundred "main series" albums have been released to date. The UK series has followed a double-album format throughout the series, now exploiting the capacity of the CD to include between 40 and 46 tracks over two discs. Since July 2006, the Now! series have only been released on CD and digital download formats. Previously, the series had been available on vinyl, cassette and MiniDisc, until these formats declined in popularity.
Peter Duckworth and Steve Pritchard have been managing the Now brand since Now 17. Mark Goodier has voiced the Now adverts since Now That's What I Call Music! 21 in 1992, when he worked for BBC Radio 1, with the exception of Now That's What I Call Music! 95 in 2016, which was voiced by Matt Edmondson due to Goodier suffering a stroke around that time. Ashley Abram of Box Music compiled the albums from Now That's What I Call Music II in 1984 through to Now That's What I Call Music! 81 in 2012. Jenny Fisher took over as the compiler beginning with Now That's What I Call Music! 82.
On 23 October 2013, the NOW Music television channel was launched in the UK. Targeting a broad age group, the channel used to play current popular music in the daytime and hits from its 30-year back catalogue in the evenings. It was renamed to Now 80s on 27 December 2016. Its success has led to two more branded channels exploring decades, Now 90s on 27 December 2017, replacing Chilled TV, and Now 70s on 27 December 2019, replacing Total Country.

Records/achievements

The most successful volume to date is 1999's Now That's What I Call Music! 44, which sold 2.3 million copies and remains the biggest-selling various artists compilation album in the UK. 2008's Now That's What I Call Music! 70 sold 383,002 units in the first week of sales, the biggest ever first week sale of any Now album.

Most featured artists

As of November 2025, the most featured artists are Robbie Williams with 39 followed by Kylie Minogue with 35 and Calvin Harris with 34 singles, David Guetta with 32, Rihanna with 27, Katy Perry with 23 and Girls Aloud with 21. This does not include any uncredited appearances in groups or on charity records.

Formats

Although the albums started out on only vinyl records and cassette tapes, the formats on which the albums have been released have changed over the years:
  • Unabridged full versions of Now were first available starting with Now That's What I Call Music 10 in 1987, although a version of Now 4 was released on CD featuring songs that had appeared on the vinyl and cassette configurations of Nows 2, 3 and 4. Now That's What I Call Music 8 and Now That's What I Call Music 9 were released as single disc CDs in 1986 and 1987, respectively. A "Special Collectors Edition" of Now 1 was released on CD in 2009 as a digipak, 2015 and again in 2018 as a jewel case album.
  • Vinyl editions of the main series ended in 1996 with Now That's What I Call Music! 35, though there have been spin-offs such as NOW presents the 70s, released as a five LP vinyl boxset by Sony/EMI in 2021.
  • MiniDiscs started with Now That's What I Call Music! 43 in 1999 and ended with Now That's What I Call Music! 48 in 2001.
  • The first Now album to be released as a digital download was Now That's What I Call Music! 62 in 2005 across online music stores.
  • Cassette tapes ceased in 2006 with the final cassette being Now That's What I Call Music! 64.
  • VHS tapes were released as companions to all the Now albums from the first volume through Now That's What I Call Music! 20, except for Now! That's What I Call Music 19. They contained music videos, some for tracks featured on the accompanying album and others for tracks not on the album. Some of the earlier volumes were also released on Betamax and for some volumes laserdiscs were also released.

    Spin-offs

In addition to the main Now That's What I Call Music series, there have been a number of spin-off compilations in the UK using the name, including:
  • Now Dance – a series in its own right, these compilations originally consisted of 12" mixes of current hits. They now focus on radio mixes of recent dance hits, and a Very Best of Now Dance compilation has been released.
  • At least two different series of year-by-year "retrospective" compilations, covering 1983 to 1995 and 1980 to 1999, respectively were issued in the 1990s with the latter series known as Now - The Millennium Edition. In June 2021, the Now Yearbook series was launched. Starting with 1983, the series will cover each year in depth via compilations released on a four-CD boxset and 3 disc coloured vinyl LP set by Now Music, with a tie-in programme appearing on their Freeview TV channel. The original Now Yearbook 1983 could be initially ordered as a special book-style CD boxset, with the title joined a few months later by a standard CD boxset called Now Yearbook Extra 1983 which promised '60 more essential hits from 1983', and tracks like Kenny Everett's "Snot Rap", Roman Holliday's "Don't Try to Stop It" and "Friday Night" by the Kids from Fame.
  • At least five "best-of" compilations including selected songs from the entire Now series. Now Decades, Now Years, Now 25 Years, Now 30 Years, and Now That's What I Call Now! are these five albums, but there have been other albums, like Now No.1's, which also cover the entire Now series.
  • At least one tie-up with Smash Hits magazine in 1987, called Now Smash Hits..
  • Christmas releases, including some classic Christmas favourites.
  • Genre-based spin-offs are normally issued in the 2020s as 4CD sets, though Now That's What I Call Punk & New Wave was issued as a limited edition 2LP neon pink vinyl set with 34 songs from the standard compilation's 89 tracks.
  • Sometimes considered a spin-off, video releases, including video cassette editions of many early Now compilations, and yearly DVD video releases which run in 2001 until 2007.
  • Other releases include Now Karaoke and the interactive DVD Now That's What I Call a Music Quiz.
  • A series of compilation video games were released in the mid-1980s by Virgin Games with the name Now Games.
  • A Wii game was released on 2 December 2011 named Now That's What I Call Music! - Dance and Sing. It features tracks by popular artists of the time, including Alexandra Burke, Jessie J, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Tinie Tempah, Calvin Harris and Plan B. It features a Dance Mode, Sing Mode and Career Mode.
  • In fall 2024, Now That's What I Call a Musical!, a jukebox musical based on the album series, made its stage debut.