The 100th Now That’s What I Call Music compilation is released on Friday.
From the first one in 1983 they have all been bestsellers and for many they were a cheaper alternative to buying lots of individual singles, even if you had to put up with some tracks you did not like!
Sky News interviews Jonathan Isaby has every album in the series. Here he explains how they have formed the soundtrack to his life.
When I was given an old 1950s transistor radio by my grandmother in the summer of 1986, at the age of eight, I tuned it to Radio 1 and immediately got into the pop music of the day.
With artists like Bananarama, Duran Duran and Five Star in their heyday, I was hooked.
And by the time I got a brand new (if highly unsophisticated) radio/cassette player for my tenth birthday in December 1987, I knew I wanted to start creating a music library of my own.
Like most kids of the time, I would try to tape songs off the radio, but was always frustrated by the DJs’ ramblings over the beginning and end of tracks, so there was only one thing for it – buy the music for myself.
And I immediately realised that the most economical way to ensure I had all the latest chart hits was to save up my pocket money and snap them up via a compilation album, of which the Now That’s What I Call Music series was already the market leader.
