In March we started this mini series looking at past chart based compilations that both played a part in my life at the time and how they became so popular by the late 1980's they were given a chart of their own.
We saw in 1982 the start of the trend towards improving the quality and value of these compilations with the two part Raiders Of The Pop Charts, a year retrospective that did not edit the tracks nor reduce the sound quality to cram ten tracks or more per side by Ronco.
Instead it gave you fifteen per record on a pair of records.
This meant it sounded as good as a regular album by your favourite artist although we saw the old style twenty track release was stil popular with the late 1982 Chart Wars but that form was to fade out.
The road to the pioneering Now That's What I Call Music in late 1983 was kicked off with this release, Chart Runners in early 1983 of hits from January and February that repeated the shorter twin lp set - I say twin set as it wasn't an actual double lp set but two seperate lps to be sold together at a discount -format.
This featured a number of favourites of mine from that period such as Reap The Wild Wind from the excellent Ultravox Quartet album of 1982, U2's New Years Day and Men At Work's Down Under.
The albums had the all important "The tracks contained in the album are the complete unedited singles versions as originally recorded" box, a sign of a quality compilation.
This,Chart Encounters Of The Hit Kind, was the May 1983 follow up issued around the time I took my A Levels, a in some respects stronger set that repeated that shorter higher quality two lp pack format that featured Snot Rap by the outragously funny Kenny Everitt as Sid Snot and Cupid Stunt.
It was compiled by Ashley Abram who went on to compile the Now albums and even had a tape mastering credit.
This gave me U2's Two Hearts Beat As One, introduced me to the musically interesting Thompson Twins with We Are Detective from the Side Kicks album, featured the Grammy winning Africa by Toto, the thoughtful Get The Balence Right by Depeche Mode and the first solo single by Nick Heyward from the mega brilliant North Of A Miracle album.
As Summer was closing and some of us were looking for a job most of jigsaw pieces for the NOW series had come together, sharp visually appealing covers, attention to detail with getting the actual singles versions and cutting the album for higher quality.
Ronco changed format again and went with a short lived series under The Hit Squad with a leather clad music loving posse.
Chart Tracking is a near perfect distilation of classic pop from the summer of '83 with all the hits you would of expected with Cruel Summer by Bananarama, Madness' infectious Wings Of A Dove, Depeche Mode's cynical Everything Counts and the unforgetable Nobody's Diary by Yazoo before they disbanded and Alison Moyet started a successful solo career.
This second issue, issued at the same time as and with similar cover to Chart Tracking was a confusing at the time issue that majored on the popularity of dance music and the twelve inch extended remix although some of those were only on the tape issue despite what the lp jacket implied.
It even duplicated Give It Up, the #1 KC and the Sunshine Band's summer massive hit from that other album while adding Galazy's Dancing Tight, Freeze's I.O.U which I adored, Mtume's delightful Juicy Fruit and the inspired medly of Steely Dan's Do It Again coupled with Billy Jean by Club House.
I bought this on cassette for the extended mixes playing on my tape deck and very first "Walkman".
Because of the side length this wasn't as good sounding as Chart Tracking but in hindsight this started another trend, the Dance Music chart remix compilation that Now That's What I Call Music expanded up two years later with Now Dance, compiling 12" dance remixes on two lps.
Little did Ronco realize just what was being worked on that in time saw those pioneering chart compilations go within months.
On November 28th 1983 the road to the now justly famous Now That's I Call Music albums and brand emerged pulling together the use of the full unedited singles, a higher quality twin lp format but now packaged as a double lp set and brief background capsule track narration.
For pop fans like me this was fantastic as we had now a high quality deluxe compilation of singles without having to buy loads of individual ones and flip them every four minutes or so over whose packaging was as good as any regular album. classy but eye catching too.
Now That's What I Call Music was in part a year round up even having the details of the other chart toppers on the inside and the hits of Autumn of 1983 that bookcased our higher quality Ronco albums of that same year.
The success of the Now series lead to Now and later on the shorter lived CBS/WEA Hits albums being able to get first dibs for chart compilation inclusion rights which pulled the rug from underneath not just Ronco whose attempts to improve on what we could expect from a chart compilation had lead to these new albums but also K Tel leading them to end chart complations and concentrate more on themed releases such as romantic, year round ups or genre based ones
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