Now That’s What I Call No.1 Hits

ANOTHER week, another spin-off compilation from the long-running, mega-selling Now series.

The guys and gals at Now Towers must sit down every so often and bandy round a few buzzwords – Party, Hits, Summer – then flick through their back catalogue to see which songs most suit the theme.

They have a lot of tracks to choose from, because the main Now albums come out three times a year and together feature more than 120 songs from that year’s charts.

There’s a lot of forgettable songs amongst those six discs – yes, they might have charted, but they’re soon discarded as yet more pop, rock, indie, dance and urban tracks are released for download.

All this makes albums such as No1 Hits a welcome proposition, a sort of ‘best of’: hits not misses, boss not dross, a collection more likely to be repeatedly played in its entirety than the regular Now albums, and appealing to more than just the core teens ‘n’ twenties crowd.

I’ve certainly played these discs again and again in the car.

There are lots of songs from past two or three years, by the likes of Katy Perry, Lorde, Jess Glynne, Ellie Goulding, David Guetta and Sia, and Justin Bieber.

Many of these will be familiar even to those who don’t follow the charts – from Strictly Come Dancing, the X Factor, TV ads or even Radio 2.

Then there are other songs going back a few more years – like Rock DJ, Bleeding Love, SexyBack, American Boy, Hips Don’t Lie, Grace Kelly and About You Now.

David Knights