It's November 2023, and the world's most successful compilation series is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Five decades of compiling the latest hits, the occasional miss, but always the songs that soundtracked our lives. Always there, always democratically and expertly sequencing the music that the UK buying (downloading/streaming/swiping) public were grooving to, laughing to, dancing along with, or crying about (add in your own band or artists here).

What else is still with us from 1983? And still having such an impact?

Breakfast Time? Well, certainly not Frank Bough.

The Ford Sierra? Taxi!

£1 coins? Down the back of the sofa.

Kajagoogoo? Hush hush, as they say. (One for the older listeners)

So, as our friends at NOW rightly celebrate the past through a stunning array of special albums and even see podcasters pop up across several TV programmes waxing lyrically about the famous compilation series (well, no-one else will talk about it, will they?) the numbered series that started it all in November 1983 continued to do exactly what it set out to do; bring together the songs of NOW.

Perhaps no longer just the Top Chart Hits, that tag line that emblazoned the front cover of earlier volumes, but now taking into account the various ways we actually DO consume music in the third decade of the 21st century.

NOW 116 - The Best of the Best.

47 tracks. Tik Tok stars, Film soundtrack anthems, legendary decade surviving artists. Pop, rock, dance, soul.

All present and correct, all breathlessly exciting, all taking that snapshot in time of pop culture. And as we know, an invaluable window into the soundtrack of our lives.

Where, indeed, Agnetha, do we go from here?

To understand the past and the future, we always need to be in the NOW. (Take a note of that line, its a good one: Ed)

And joining me to make sense of this dazzling volume of the world famous compilation series is award winning writer, journalist and NOW fan David Quantick.

David explains why he wanted to get in 'at the deep end' and why he thinks that NOW116 highlights that pop is in a fine healthy state in. We explore what actually is a 'hit' in 2023/24, why short songs are always an indication of great songs, why NOW continues to keep getting it right and how the compilation series is Top Of The Pops in exile.

Along the way, discover who David describes as 'the Dr. Who of Pop', who are 'The Strokes for Queen fans (or was that the other way around)' and what a bad AI version of George Michael may look (and sound) like. We also revisit why Pop continues to Eat Itself (yes, David came up with that one!), why the female artists are leaving the boys behind, who the 'ASDA Madonna' is and who the real Madonna is.

And did Chris Lowe really offer Tracey Chapman a lift in 1988?

We really do (watch what I do here) Paint The Town Red!

Jump in, buckle up and remind yourself why pop is still very, very important.

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