Now that’s what I call an idea

Now that’s what I call an idea

The concept of a compilation of recent hit singles is not new; since the early 1970s two telemarketing companies, K-tel and Ronco, had been issuing albums featuring songs by a variety of artists.

1982 had been a phenomenally successful year for Virgin Records and the head of Licensing and Business Affairs, Stephen Navin, and General Manager, Jon Webster, met in their office in Vernon Yard, just off Portobello Road, London to discuss ideas for the coming years. It was there that the idea for what was to become the 'Now That’s What I Call Music!' series was born. Stephen and John felt that instead of licensing their tracks to K-Tel and Ronco they should do it for themselves.

They took their nascent concept to Simon Draper, Managing Director at Virgin Records who liked it so the three of them took it onto Peter Jamieson the Managing Director of EMI Records, who were Virgin’s distributors at the time. Jamieson had considered doing something similar but was impressed with the Virgin team’s drive and enthusiasm agreed to a partnership providing even more hits that could be included.

The deal was negotiated and finalised on Richard Branson’s boat moored in Little Venice.

For the name, the team owe a debt of gratitude to Danish Bacon and Sir Richard Branson. Hanging in Simon Draper’s office was a 1920s advertising poster for Danish bacon featuring a pig listening to a chicken sing. The caption read 'Now. That's what I call Music'.

The poster has been bought by Sir Richard for his cousin Simon Draper from a little bric-a-brac shop on Portobello Road, called Dodo’s. Branson explained the present by saying 'He (Simon) was notoriously grumpy before breakfast and loved his eggs in the morning, so I bought him the poster, framed it and had it hung behind his desk!'

Peter Jamieson said 'Seeing the poster with the same title on it that had become so familiar to me was serendipity, ‘fate’ even, and I knew then that this had to be the title of our series. It was a powerful and meaningful statement in its own right, and when abbreviated to ‘Now’, gave the ultimate contemporary message'.

The pig became the Now! series mascot for a while, making its last appearance on 'Now That's What I Call Music 5'. The series is still running today, 'Now 84', was released on 14 March 2013.

And the moral is sometimes you can do what others are doing for you, but do it better for yourself. What could you be doing for yourself than someone else is doing for you?


Read more brand stories from Giles Lury in our Library or on his blog The Prisoner and the Penguin.
 

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