Review
“Good times we had return to haunt me”
April 1995: The Now series was hitting 30. The previous year was their most consistent to date and topped off by the super selection on Now That’s What I Call Music 29.
Levi’s advertising campaign continued through the decade with Norman Cook’s new venture, Freak Power, getting the gig with the eternal groove of Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out. Ms Jackson follows with the sixth single from May 1993’s Janet, the effortlessly catchy Whoops Now! And it’s first blood for Dublin’s Boyzone with their syrupy cover of Love Me For A Reason. The Comic Relief single for ’95 saw a melting pot of Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton on the stately Love Can Build A Bridge. This slow pace is magnified by the inclusion of East 17’s deathly earnest Stay, a million seller and Christmas #1 for 1994 – UK and all over the world. Those bells.
There’s a downbeat vibe on Mike and The Mechanics’ melancholy Over My Shoulder while Jimmy Nail’s mournful Crocodile Shoes and its accompanying television series is firmly etched in my mind; a regular watch in the run up to the previous year’s festive season. And here’s one for all those precious indie kids: Scarlet’s Independent Love Song. A China In Your Hand for the 1990s, balladtastic. The road turns towards Simple Minds; fighting to stay relevant in ’95. She’s A River has some flashes of the old genius but they’re all too brief. The cobwebs are swept away with the Boo Radleys’ breakthrough Wake Up Boo! Unrelenting in its cheeriness. So I’m relieved to hear the mature eight-legged groove machine of Octopus; the latest Human League LP and its swish 45 Tell Me When.
The rise and rise of M People and their elegant club sound on Sight For Sore Eyes. In every home a heartache. Elsewhere Sting and Pato Banton get together on the incongruous Cowboy Song while Shut Up And Dance inject Duran Duran’s Save A Prayer with righteous dance beats – Save It ‘Til The Morning After. We switch to R&B delights on R Kelly’s Bump ‘N’ Grind and Eternal’s sensual Oh Baby I. . . Over to Bristol: City vs Rovers. Massive Attack loop in Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn on the sublime trip hop classic Protection. Follow that with Glory Box, Portishead’s scorching fragmented blues sound. And bringing us up to half time are Oasis with Whatever; their standalone single and most ambitious work to date. Only available on this compilation for quite some time; this version loses the closing clapping [which I never liked anyway].
“I wrote the song two hours before we met
I didn’t know your name or what you looked like yet
Oh I could have stayed at home and gone to bed
I could have gone to see a film instead”
Disc 2 is geared towards club sounds. It’s worth nothing that 15 tracks on Now That’s What I Call Music 30 had already appeared on Now Dance ’95 which was released a month beforehand. We start with the Chicago-based Outhere Brothers and their frantic Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle). Then it’s Alex Party’s pounding Don’t Give Me Your Life coupled with Strike’s hypnotic U Sure Do and Kenny Dope’s crucial The Bomb. Push The Feeling On had been a heavily played 12″ in most nightclubs for the previous 18 months; finally a new remix saw it fly up the charts and ensure immortality for The Nightcrawlers. Groove to Tin Tin’s gorgeous re-working of Burt ‘n’ Hal’s Always Something There To Remind Me.
Pump up the volume: Corona’s bouncing Baby Baby improves with age. Clock bring Axel Foley into the 90s with a fast-paced upgrade while N-Trance’s Set You Free slays all and still makes the hairs on my neck stand up. The son of a gun – mystery man JX – returns with the hardbag monster You Belong To Me. Next: Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto Allstatz mob burning up Pigbag’s ’82 hit. More: an 1820s Darude Sandstorm [Rednex’s Cotton Eye Joe]. Blink and you’ll miss it: Deuce’s pop stomper Call It Love as produced by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow. The tempo gets back up with 2 Unlimited’s furious Here I Go and the dreamy Run Away from MC Sar and The Real McCoy. Leave them all behind.
Stretch out and wait to Nicki French’s faithful version of Total Eclipse Of The Heart. We trot over to Albert Square to see Sean Maguire [Aidan Brosnan] singing the feelgood Suddenly. Time for a hot tip; a Victims if you will. Bobby Brown’s Two Can Play That Game getting remixed by K-Klass and flying high. It’s followed by Ultimate Kaos representing teenage London on the smooth Hoochie Booty. Pato Banton pops up a second time with Ranking Roger on the toasty Bubbling Hot. It’s the tighter radio edit [the Beatmasters Searchin’ Remix appears on Now Dance ’95]. We close the book with Mica Paris and her incredibly soulful interpretation of U2’s One. Higher than the sun indeed.
“If there’s been a way to build it
There’ll be a way to destroy it
Things are not all that out of control”
Favourite tracks
Portishead – Glory Box
Oasis – Whatever
Massive Attack – Protection
M People – Sight For Sore Eyes
Deuce – Call It Love
Lest we forget
Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu – Always Something There To Remind Me
Missing tracks and other thoughts
Now That’s What I Call Music 30 covers off winter ’94 and early spring ’95 with customary aplomb. There’s a great selection of era-defining classics and a few numbers that shone briefly before fading away. I’d like to propose the following candidates for inclusion:
Baby D – Let Me Be Your Fantasy. The regular radio edit please.
The Stone Roses – Love Spreads. Back after five and a half years of silence.
Supergrass – Mansize Rooster. Setting themselves up for the summer.
Elastica – Waking Up. A gradual build-up to a stunning debut album.
The Prodigy – Poison. Unleash the antidote.
Advertising
A Pop Fan's Dream 
Pingback: Now That’s What I Call Music 1995 (EMI / Virgin / Polygram, 1995) | A Pop Fan's Dream
Pingback: Now That’s What I Call Music 1994: The Millennium Series (EMI / Virgin / Universal, 1999) | A Pop Fan's Dream
Pingback: Now That’s What I Call Music 1995: The Millennium Series (EMI / Virgin / Universal, 1999) | A Pop Fan's Dream
Am actually listening to Now 30 right now as I type this (Independent Love Song specifically).
Remember first acquiring “Tell Me When” on a rival compilation which I think was called “Chartbusters” (No connection to the Ronco compilation from 1982) and like Now 30, this track opened Side Two of the cassette.
Are you familiar with that compilation at all and do you have any idea when it came out in relation to Now 30?
Hi Martin, Chartbusters – 40 Mega Hits was released by Global Television around the beginning of May 1995 – about a month after Now 30.
Global relaunched the Hits series that August with Hitz Blitz. AKA Hits 21
I suppose Chartbusters was like testing the water.
Once again thanks for a really interesting response. Other than “Wake Up Boo” and “Tell Me When” I can’t think which other tracks from Now 30 were included on that Chartbusters compilation. Maybe I need to dig out my copy.
One thought I have had is why Take That were absent from a number of Now albums between 1994 and 1996. My guess is that “Back For Good” could have fitted well here or on Now 31.
Likewise “Everything Changes” could have fitted well on Now 28 and, “Never Forget” on either Now 31 or Now 32 and “How Deep Is Your Love” on Now 34.
Yes, Take That seemed to get included elsewhere then.
Babe (Return Remix) – Hits ’94 – Volume 1
Everything Changes did eventually make Now That’s What I Call Music 1994
Never Forget on Smash Hits 3
Back For Good would really have fitted on Now 31 – a very bittersweet song for me.
Back For Good- without a doubt my favourite Take That song.
For the record was it released before Now 30 would have come out or afterwards?
Back For Good – 27 March
Now 30 – 10 April
Thanks for confirming that.
Sure was on Now 29. I can only guess that BMG didn’t allow permission, instead keeping the Take That tracks for Global/BMG compilations. That seemed to relax with ‘Never Forget’, which seemed to appear on everything! If you check the Nows from 24 to the end of the decade, there were very few BMG tracks that appeared on them that were up to date. Now 26 had a few (M People, Take That, Haddaway), but they were almost old hat by the time the compilation was released. That was a familiar story. Not many BMG/Sony/Warner tracks on Nows when the Hits Album series was revived and not many EMI/Virgin/Polygram tracks on the Hits Albums.
Hi Andrew – hadn’t considered that before but makes sense. Yes, the Christmas Now (26) getting the older scraps – although it is savagely strong.
Very strong, but a few fillers on the second half of each disc. Time Frequency an obvious absence, Taylor Dayne’s Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love worth a shout instead of Captain Hollywood Project, which I think compilers were hoping would be a big hit following on from Mr Vain (written by the same people). Funnily, if Now 25 had Haddaway (already used before by Virgin on The Best Dance Album in the World 1), One NIght In Heaven and Pray, that would have been a much stronger album and Now 26 in turn.
Very intelligently written, good stuff.
Another point of interest, perhaps. Set You Free by N-Trance. The version on here and all of Abram’s compilations are faded in about 10 seconds later, as opposed to the usual trick of fading out early. Global (also pinched by Polygram) edited their original and used a heavily truncated version. As far as I know, Dino Entertainment (with Energy Rush K9 and Dance Massive 95) are the only compilers who used the proper full length version of this.
Great info Andrew – had recently spotted a difference with version on Dance Massive 95
Just currently listening to sides three and four of this, and I’ve noticed that Kenny “Dope”‘s “The Bomb!” actually fades out during the ending of the radio edit here. For the radio edit without the fading and proper closing, check out Telstar’s Dance Boom 2.
Back to Now 30, and Side Three is definitely banger after banger, perfect for the raves – Outhere Brothers-Alex Party-Strike-Kenny “Dope”-Nightcrawlers-Tin Tin Out-Corona-Clock-N-Trance-JX-Perfecto Allstars. No wonder why it’s one of the best sides in 90s Now history.
In general radio history in Britain at the time this compilation was released, Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes would ultimately host his very last Top 40 show on 16th April, Easter Sunday 1995 – just a few days after this had hit the shelves (blame the Bannisterisation, where Radio 1 had to get rid of their older DJs and employ new recruits to make the station sound younger, for this).
Good spot Stephen, must check the CD again. I wonder if the edit is unique to the vinyl – not surprising given the time constraints. Agree, a very impressive sequence. The Bannister effect was a curse!