Now That's What I Call Music 1

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Now That's What I Call Music 1

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Now That's What I Call Music! (often shortened to Now!) is a long-running series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom by Polygram/EMI/Virgin Records; spinoff series were later started in the United States and elsewhere.

Devised by Ashley Abram of Box Records (a consultancy specialising in producing compilations), the series took its name from an advertising poster for Danish meat products which showed a pig listening to a whistling cockerel. The pig became the Now! series' mascot for a while, making its last appearance on Now! 5.

The first Now! compilation appeared in 1983 and collected thirty UK hit singles from that year on a double vinyl LP or cassette. The concept of a compilation of recent hit singles was not new (Ronco and K-tel had been issuing single-disc collections since the early 1970s), but by spreading tracks across two discs instead of one, the Now! series was able to achieve better sound quality, and since the albums were a collaboration between major record companies a greater number of major hits could be included (the first album in the series boasted of "11 number ones" on its sleeve, something previously unheard-of). The album went to number one and soon had a major rival in CBS/WEA's The Hits Album which adopted a similar format to Now! The two series co-existed for the rest of the 1980s. ("Now That's What I Call Music", Wikipedia)