Now Yearbook 1981

Various Artists hits compilations of sorts had been around for getting on for some sixty years from the days of "Sound alike" re-recordings of hits issued most famously by Hallmark in their Top Of The Pops series offering eleven or twelve hits of a four week period for little more than the price of a 45 rpm single with an eye catching cover to the first original artist sets in the early 1970's that might offer up to 24 hits on a single on tv advertised labels such as K Tel, Ronco and the like.

They were very popular although the sound wasn't too good for squashing the lowest and highest notes and chopping the songs to get it all to fit between two lp sides.

The scene changed in 1983 after a few better quality sets from Ronco when EMI and Virgin joined forces to start the iconic Now That's What I Call Music series and CBS and Warners got together in 1984 with the HITS series.

If you were around in the 1980's like me the chances are you have those NOW and HITS records still but there is a line between them and the less good sets we had before.

Now That's What I Call Music launched last year a deluxe series of albums that took hits, packaging them into four cds in main booklet styled set with short notes and a three cd Extra set which you may of collected.

That series had a vinyl version which saw a selection off the main four cd set issued on three records and with that I saw a place for this, the most recent version covering the year 1981 which was a massive one in UK Pop Music and to which I only had the Ronco Super Hits '81 double thin sounding set from Xmas that year.

There was on a little duplication and in any event this would sound much fuller than any number of K Tel and Ronco sets of that year so I bought it.

The record itself is pressed on quiet red coloured vinyl, three discs in a single pocket, a bit cheap but functional and was quite cheap allowing for inflation comparing with what I payed back then.

With hits from the Human League, Adam Ant, Madness, Queen, Reo Speedwagon and many others it certainly fills a hole in my vinyl hits collection all right.