Great memories, I, too, was an 80s top 40 taper, and like everyone else git annoyed with the voiceover. My sister had NOW1 on vinyl. Love watching now80s on TV and absolute80s on radio, brings back great memories. As an aside, Men at Work with Down Under was the first 7" single I bought, and it was no1 the day my wife was born....now that's what I call spooky!
Spooky indeed! 🙃 In hindsight I regret cutting out the DJs; I came across an old top 40 recording that still had the DJ, and the DJ was the most nostalgic thing about the recording. There's a clip here if you're interested: ua-cam.com/video/0tdoY4Z4j54/v-deo.html
Thank you RetroSteve, I was a Hits Album buyer and my friend would get the Now that's what I call music. It's interesting which one lasted the longest. Keep doing what you do because I think it's great.
The Hits Compilations were strong for the first five years and could certainly hold their own and nepotically like their surviving rivals 'Now' heavily used artists signed to their collaboration labels - Hits were Warners and Sony owned , whilst now was EMI/Virgin-Universal. Ironically half of the product originally owned by EMI are now part of Warners, whilst Sony ended up joining the NOW camp a good few years ago. The Hits brand has made a recent comeback with customised themed albums similar to what Now are now issuing.
Thank you RetroSteve, I really enjoyed this and it was great to see the adverts from the time. I've managed to pick up a good few vinyl Now albums from charity shops in recent years...still on the lookout for Now 1 😁. Your compilations are excellent, thanks for bringing back great memories 💖and for the nostalgia. 😊
No probs, and thanks for watching. Might be worth checking the online marketplace on the Discogs website for a Now 1 album. From memory, I don't think they're particularly expensive.
The completist in me has made me obsessed with getting hold of every Now on vinyl from 1-13. I currently need 1,8,9,11 and 12 to complete. I grew up in in South Africa and our Nows were about a year behind the UK. Our vol 1 resembled your vol. 3, our vol. 2 resembled your vol. 4 etc.
I got this for Xmas 1983. It was a good year for presents. Got a Ferguson 3T20 stereo radio recorder from the audio department in Boots (plus a multipack of TDK AD90 blank cassettes plus 'Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits' on cassette). Then across the town centre for Now 1 on cassette from Woolworths as they didn't have it at Boots and a Sanyo digital watch from Argos. I still have them all in working order apart from the watch, the strap split in '85 and I couldn't get a replacement. Happy memories!
@@RetroSpectives Boots were great. They had all the latest kit, nicely displayed and knowledgeable staff. A better place to buy than Dixons, Comet etc. although they tended to be slightly more expensive. My dad worked for them so we got staff discount, which was a real bonus. Needless to say most of our electronic stuff came from there, including my Acorn Electron and Sony 14 inch TV.
Still have a few tapes with stuff recorded from the radio with a Radio One roadshow from 1987. Have Now 1986 and 1987 on CD but no vinyl ones I don't think. I am enjoying watching this on my sofa from 1984 so probably watched most of those ads at the time on it!
Those tapes of yours will be a real gem for years to come. These days it's hard to find decent cassette decks to play them on. Luckily, I still have my old 1990s tape deck hooked up to my HiFi. 😁
No probs, & thanks for contributing. The pig, apparently, stems from a random poster in the record publishers' offices that had a pig on it. The slogan on the poster inspired the album's name.
When i was a kid in the 80's i didn't like the monden music much. Got into 70's metal bands like Deep Purple. Used the money i got from my paper round and hunted in charity shops. Witch as an adult, i still do to this day. The one i work in we do 5 CDs for £1! It's good to see not all things have gotten more expensive. It was great to see the old ads for the Now albums at the end. Thank you for sharing. Take care : )
I've lost count of how many CDs and records I've picked up from charity shops. Quite a few classics and a few oddities in my collection came from lucky charity shop finds. I still collect cassette too. They still sound good on my Technics cassette deck.
I've managed to pick up some hard to find cassette albums from the discogs website. I have a complete collection of the Deep Heat albums thanks to discogs.
I enjoyed this, Steve, thanks for putting it together. I don't remember ever having any Now stuff myself, though - I think I always found that for every song I wanted, there'd be two or three I didn't like - but I remember my sister having some, and most clearly I remember her having Now 27, which had Come Baby Come, I Like to Move It and the irritating, but irritatingly catchy, Doop but also Wonderman, which, in case you've forgotten (and if you have I envy you) was a song by Right Said Fred about Sonic the Hedgehog. No, really.
I had 50p per week pocket money. I could only afford the Now LPs when they started appearing at car boot sales. At the time, nobody wanted vinyl and everything was 50p also. I amassed a huge vinyl collection when all the record shops were clearing out their rack of records in the 99s. I used to work in a bar, and spend the money in the record shops. As a student, I used ti walk back to uni, a get mocked because people would say “Get CDs instead, they sound much better”. Well, perhaps they do on a cheap player, but that started another obsession: Hifi. A lot of 90s vinyl was rubbish - poor quality pressings and cheap vinyl with lots of imperfections. Taking lots back, due to lumps in the surface. The sceptic in me thinks this was deliberate to accelerate the shift to CDs, which were twice the price. Now records often had twice as many tracks per side, so were limited in bass and dynamic range. Bass heavy tracks were often at the beginning to assist tracking if the stylus. The other thing is that you had to act quickly, as Now records sold out quickly, and when they’re gone theyre gone.
Great video really enjoyed this. Is that Deep Heat 89 on the shelf behind you ? Had all those Telstar Deep Heats on cassette back then, lost or damaged over the years have since replaced the collection on CD and compiled a playlist of them on UA-cam 👍 My parents both now gone 😢 had the now albums on vinyl we had lots of family parties back in the 80's my favourite was now 5 and the track Axel F always reminds me of that album. Thanks for the memories 😊 oh and yes like many of your viewers i too sat there in my bedroom recording my favourite songs listening to the top 40 record pause 😅
Sorry to hear about your parents. 😔 That's a full collection of Deep Heat on cassette. Took me a while to gather them, and I wanted the tapes as I still have two fully working hifi cattette decks. I managed to source them all on Discogs - it's like ebay but just for music, including vintage formats.
@@RetroSpectives Thanks so much sadly the big C took my parents both in the last 15 years 😔 Yes i thought it was all the Deep Heats there on cassette, nice one. I know discgos well, in the early 90's i was fan of bleep house and techno and the early rave scene, later collected and sold related vinyl on discogs. Good to have the retro hi-fi there for the cassettes, i use an early 90's technics amp phono to optic converter for my music on UA-cam but would like a cassette deck, keep meaning to buy one, this has inspired me to get one 😀 👍
Yeah, it has to be vintage decks for any kind of sound quality now, unfortunately. If the info helps, my second deck was bought on eBay from a dealer for about £60. It's a 1980 model Technics. You'd think it was a CD playing, it's so good.
I had more HITS albums than NOW ones - though I have fond memories of NOW 10, it was the Xmas my mum bought me a 2-cassette portable stereo, which meant I could listen to music in my bedroom. I also remember our next-door neighbours had NOW 3 and would never lend it to me despite hounding them!
Just subscribed because of watching your other channel that ive been subscribed to for a while now but my 1st 9" single was robert plant, big log, the b side was messin with the mekon, it was free by doing something if you bought a pair of clarks shoes but i cant remember what it was
Well thanks for the sub. 🙂 My first single was Arthur Daley (E's Alright) by the firm. Pretty much wore out my record player I played it so many times.
I'd left school when this 1st album was released, unfortunately, it was not my cup of tea, was more into Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, AC/DC etc :) (Still am) Nice video again though, still brings back a few memories.
I was very much a "normie" pop music fan as a kid and young teen. Started getting into heavier music at about 17 though. Used to sport a studded, patch-covered jacket and shoulder length hair around that time. Now I'm pushing 50 and completely bald! 🤣
there was the hits series which was 1-8 then due to low sales 9 was called the hits album the 10 after that was rebranded, now back as a budget cd series
@@terrystanton3848 The only full set I've ever collected were the Deep Heat compilations from the 90s - on cassette. I completed my collection through the marketplace on Discogs.
I still own now 10...13.....16 on vinyl from when I was a teenager. I bought a few more recently too . But ones that are holding their money and rare are now 30 onwards on vinyl when brit pop started and has the like of oasis and pulp on them.
It wouldn't strictly apply to the topic of this, but I wish copyright issues would've allowed you to top and tail this video with Whole Lotta Love by CCS just for the full music nostalgia effect 😆 I used to tape stuff off the radio (really, who didn't?), and now that I'm getting back into cassettes I'm cursing younger me for having got rid of all my old tapes - what a joyous time capsule they'd be right now.
Yeah, I tried that with the music before making the video; immediate, automated copyright claims. I have to use royalty free music in my vids, so I try to find tracks that have the right vibe. There's normally something half decent in the UA-cam audio library.
I bought and still have every now right up to 23. After that I stopped buying them religiously. Question. I have my original now 1 and I bought one from a boots ale 29 years ago. Why are the cassettes on one now 1 got red print on the cassettes and black on the other now 1? Any ideas??
It's funny, as a kid I used to blow all my pocket money straight away; never saved anything. Strangely, I'm now the opposite of that as an adult. Life's strange.
I remember my sister buying now that's what I call music one . Can't believe the years that have passed the Group's in them days had real competition with each other . Now anyone can become famous with the rubbish!!!! they produce.😂
It is fascinating when you think about how the music industry has developed. Back then music acts were dependent on record publishers and got famous through TOTP and radio play. Funny to think that anyone with talent and a bit of luck can now build a career independently through the internet and social media!
Love how you did the countdown just like top of the pops!!!
Awesome upload as always Steve!!!
I was going for 'Bruno Brookes' but it ended up sounding a bit Australian. 😆
@@RetroSpectives 😂😂
Great memories, I, too, was an 80s top 40 taper, and like everyone else git annoyed with the voiceover. My sister had NOW1 on vinyl. Love watching now80s on TV and absolute80s on radio, brings back great memories.
As an aside, Men at Work with Down Under was the first 7" single I bought, and it was no1 the day my wife was born....now that's what I call spooky!
Spooky indeed! 🙃
In hindsight I regret cutting out the DJs; I came across an old top 40 recording that still had the DJ, and the DJ was the most nostalgic thing about the recording. There's a clip here if you're interested: ua-cam.com/video/0tdoY4Z4j54/v-deo.html
Thank you RetroSteve, I was a Hits Album buyer and my friend would get the Now that's what I call music. It's interesting which one lasted the longest. Keep doing what you do because I think it's great.
Thanks. A little bit of encouragement goes a long way. 🤗
I presume you and your friend used to tape each-others' LPs? 😉
The Hits Compilations were strong for the first five years and could certainly hold their own and nepotically like their surviving rivals 'Now' heavily used artists signed to their collaboration labels - Hits were Warners and Sony owned , whilst now was EMI/Virgin-Universal. Ironically half of the product originally owned by EMI are now part of Warners, whilst Sony ended up joining the NOW camp a good few years ago. The Hits brand has made a recent comeback with customised themed albums similar to what Now are now issuing.
Thank you RetroSteve, I really enjoyed this and it was great to see the adverts from the time. I've managed to pick up a good few vinyl Now albums from charity shops in recent years...still on the lookout for Now 1 😁. Your compilations are excellent, thanks for bringing back great memories 💖and for the nostalgia. 😊
No probs, and thanks for watching. Might be worth checking the online marketplace on the Discogs website for a Now 1 album. From memory, I don't think they're particularly expensive.
Piggin great!!!
We loved the pig at the time, but I'm kinda glad he only stuck around for the first few albums.
The completist in me has made me obsessed with getting hold of every Now on vinyl from 1-13. I currently need 1,8,9,11 and 12 to complete. I grew up in in South Africa and our Nows were about a year behind the UK. Our vol 1 resembled your vol. 3, our vol. 2 resembled your vol. 4 etc.
I've been able to pick up some quite rare albums quite cheaply through discogs.com .. it's like ebay, but for cassettes, vinyl & CDs.
Loved this thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
I got this for Xmas 1983. It was a good year for presents. Got a Ferguson 3T20 stereo radio recorder from the audio department in Boots (plus a multipack of TDK AD90 blank cassettes plus 'Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits' on cassette). Then across the town centre for Now 1 on cassette from Woolworths as they didn't have it at Boots and a Sanyo digital watch from Argos. I still have them all in working order apart from the watch, the strap split in '85 and I couldn't get a replacement. Happy memories!
Every time I walk past Boots now I miss their electrical departments. Used to buy a lot of my budget Spectrum games on cassette there.
@@RetroSpectives Boots were great. They had all the latest kit, nicely displayed and knowledgeable staff. A better place to buy than Dixons, Comet etc. although they tended to be slightly more expensive. My dad worked for them so we got staff discount, which was a real bonus. Needless to say most of our electronic stuff came from there, including my Acorn Electron and Sony 14 inch TV.
Still have a few tapes with stuff recorded from the radio with a Radio One roadshow from 1987. Have Now 1986 and 1987 on CD but no vinyl ones I don't think. I am enjoying watching this on my sofa from 1984 so probably watched most of those ads at the time on it!
Those tapes of yours will be a real gem for years to come. These days it's hard to find decent cassette decks to play them on. Luckily, I still have my old 1990s tape deck hooked up to my HiFi. 😁
Yay, I'm in this! Thanks for including my comment!! 🍹💿🔮🕺
You're welcome. Thanks for taking the time to contribute. 🙂👍
Cheers for including my comment. I thought the picture of the pig on the album was random enough let alone the animated versions in the adverts 😆
No probs, & thanks for contributing. The pig, apparently, stems from a random poster in the record publishers' offices that had a pig on it. The slogan on the poster inspired the album's name.
When i was a kid in the 80's i didn't like the monden music much. Got into 70's metal bands like Deep Purple.
Used the money i got from my paper round and hunted in charity shops. Witch as an adult, i still do to this day.
The one i work in we do 5 CDs for £1! It's good to see not all things have gotten more expensive.
It was great to see the old ads for the Now albums at the end.
Thank you for sharing. Take care : )
I've lost count of how many CDs and records I've picked up from charity shops. Quite a few classics and a few oddities in my collection came from lucky charity shop finds. I still collect cassette too. They still sound good on my Technics cassette deck.
IVE STILL GOT LOADS OF THE NOW ALBUMS ON 33/AND A HALF VINAL KEPT PLAYING THEM ON MY RECORD PLAYER VERY LOUD
I have a few still. Mostly charity shop finds.
Great vid i did have some of the nows from the 90s on tape . But now collecting the rereleases on cd .
I've managed to pick up some hard to find cassette albums from the discogs website. I have a complete collection of the Deep Heat albums thanks to discogs.
@@RetroSpectives cool im going to try and collect the old / rerelesed now albums from the 80s ,90s and up to 2000 then music went crap lol .
I enjoyed this, Steve, thanks for putting it together. I don't remember ever having any Now stuff myself, though - I think I always found that for every song I wanted, there'd be two or three I didn't like - but I remember my sister having some, and most clearly I remember her having Now 27, which had Come Baby Come, I Like to Move It and the irritating, but irritatingly catchy, Doop but also Wonderman, which, in case you've forgotten (and if you have I envy you) was a song by Right Said Fred about Sonic the Hedgehog. No, really.
Yeah, thanks for the heads-up .. I won't try looking that up! 🤣
@@RetroSpectives Smart man.
I didn't recognise these songs without Tommy Vance, talking at the end.
I tried to get him but turns out he passed away in 2005. 😉😢
The US didn't get its own version of "Now That's What I Call Music" until late October of 1998. I had no idea it originated in the UK.
I might have to look into that. Might have been a different company, just the same album name.
I had 50p per week pocket money. I could only afford the Now LPs when they started appearing at car boot sales. At the time, nobody wanted vinyl and everything was 50p also.
I amassed a huge vinyl collection when all the record shops were clearing out their rack of records in the 99s. I used to work in a bar, and spend the money in the record shops. As a student, I used ti walk back to uni, a get mocked because people would say “Get CDs instead, they sound much better”. Well, perhaps they do on a cheap player, but that started another obsession: Hifi.
A lot of 90s vinyl was rubbish - poor quality pressings and cheap vinyl with lots of imperfections. Taking lots back, due to lumps in the surface. The sceptic in me thinks this was deliberate to accelerate the shift to CDs, which were twice the price. Now records often had twice as many tracks per side, so were limited in bass and dynamic range. Bass heavy tracks were often at the beginning to assist tracking if the stylus.
The other thing is that you had to act quickly, as Now records sold out quickly, and when they’re gone theyre gone.
Ah yes, hifi .. Such a shame there's no real modern equivalent now. I do miss hifi separates.
Great video really enjoyed this. Is that Deep Heat 89 on the shelf behind you ? Had all those Telstar Deep Heats on cassette back then, lost or damaged over the years have since replaced the collection on CD and compiled a playlist of them on UA-cam 👍 My parents both now gone 😢 had the now albums on vinyl we had lots of family parties back in the 80's my favourite was now 5 and the track Axel F always reminds me of that album. Thanks for the memories 😊 oh and yes like many of your viewers i too sat there in my bedroom recording my favourite songs listening to the top 40 record pause 😅
Sorry to hear about your parents. 😔
That's a full collection of Deep Heat on cassette. Took me a while to gather them, and I wanted the tapes as I still have two fully working hifi cattette decks. I managed to source them all on Discogs - it's like ebay but just for music, including vintage formats.
@@RetroSpectives Thanks so much sadly the big C took my parents both in the last 15 years 😔 Yes i thought it was all the Deep Heats there on cassette, nice one. I know discgos well, in the early 90's i was fan of bleep house and techno and the early rave scene, later collected and sold related vinyl on discogs. Good to have the retro hi-fi there for the cassettes, i use an early 90's technics amp phono to optic converter for my music on UA-cam but would like a cassette deck, keep meaning to buy one, this has inspired me to get one 😀 👍
Yeah, it has to be vintage decks for any kind of sound quality now, unfortunately. If the info helps, my second deck was bought on eBay from a dealer for about £60. It's a 1980 model Technics. You'd think it was a CD playing, it's so good.
@@RetroSpectives Thanks, appreciate the info will look for a vintage Technics tape deck to go with my amplifier, i agree about the sound quality too 👍
I had more HITS albums than NOW ones - though I have fond memories of NOW 10, it was the Xmas my mum bought me a 2-cassette portable stereo, which meant I could listen to music in my bedroom. I also remember our next-door neighbours had NOW 3 and would never lend it to me despite hounding them!
Yeah, I seem to remember getting a couple of the Now records as Christmas presents. Nostalgic for that time of year with those albums.
Just subscribed because of watching your other channel that ive been subscribed to for a while now but my 1st 9" single was robert plant, big log, the b side was messin with the mekon, it was free by doing something if you bought a pair of clarks shoes but i cant remember what it was
Well thanks for the sub. 🙂 My first single was Arthur Daley (E's Alright) by the firm. Pretty much wore out my record player I played it so many times.
I'd left school when this 1st album was released, unfortunately, it was not my cup of tea, was more into Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, AC/DC etc :) (Still am)
Nice video again though, still brings back a few memories.
I was very much a "normie" pop music fan as a kid and young teen. Started getting into heavier music at about 17 though. Used to sport a studded, patch-covered jacket and shoulder length hair around that time. Now I'm pushing 50 and completely bald! 🤣
The completely passed me by. I was too involved with NOW Games.
I remember NOW games, on the Spectrum mainly. Not sure if it came out on other formats.
there was the hits series which was 1-8 then due to low sales 9 was called the hits album the 10 after that was rebranded, now back as a budget cd series
They'd be relatively easy to collect and get the full set.
@@RetroSpectives the first 10. then you get the hit pack,, monster hits. then after a few years hits then the year, then they resumed the numbering
@@terrystanton3848 The only full set I've ever collected were the Deep Heat compilations from the 90s - on cassette. I completed my collection through the marketplace on Discogs.
I still own now 10...13.....16 on vinyl from when I was a teenager.
I bought a few more recently too . But ones that are holding their money and rare are now 30 onwards on vinyl when brit pop started and has the like of oasis and pulp on them.
Wondering if that was around the time vinyl was falling out of favour, maybe. Perhaps less vinyl albums were sold, making them rarer now.
@@RetroSpectives they went to cd after that yeah your right.
It wouldn't strictly apply to the topic of this, but I wish copyright issues would've allowed you to top and tail this video with Whole Lotta Love by CCS just for the full music nostalgia effect 😆
I used to tape stuff off the radio (really, who didn't?), and now that I'm getting back into cassettes I'm cursing younger me for having got rid of all my old tapes - what a joyous time capsule they'd be right now.
Yeah, I tried that with the music before making the video; immediate, automated copyright claims. I have to use royalty free music in my vids, so I try to find tracks that have the right vibe. There's normally something half decent in the UA-cam audio library.
I’ve still got my Now 8 on double cassette 😂
Anything to play it on now?
@@RetroSpectives not anymore
I bought and still have every now right up to 23. After that I stopped buying them religiously. Question. I have my original now 1 and I bought one from a boots ale 29 years ago. Why are the cassettes on one now 1 got red print on the cassettes and black on the other now 1? Any ideas??
No idea. Probably a random production process decision, maybe.
The young me wishes he had £2 a week pocket money.
It's funny, as a kid I used to blow all my pocket money straight away; never saved anything. Strangely, I'm now the opposite of that as an adult. Life's strange.
I remember my sister buying now that's what I call music one . Can't believe the years that have passed the Group's in them days had real competition with each other . Now anyone can become famous with the rubbish!!!! they produce.😂
It is fascinating when you think about how the music industry has developed. Back then music acts were dependent on record publishers and got famous through TOTP and radio play. Funny to think that anyone with talent and a bit of luck can now build a career independently through the internet and social media!