Revisiting The Very First Volume Of NOW That's What I Call Music!
1998 was a strange and schizophrenic time for music. The boy bands were just entering the scene led by The Backstreet Boys but ska was still barely hanging on to relevance. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were only a year away from becoming household names but that same demographic that would eventually love them were currently obsessed with The Spice Girls and Hanson. Bands like The Beastie Boys with Hello Nasty and Pearl Jam with Yield were putting out some fantastic music. It was actually a pretty awesome year for music.
In October of that year, a unique kind of music compilation album came out that took very recent hits and put them on the same album. You weren't going to like every song on the album but if you liked some of them, they figured that would be good enough. It was like Top 40 radio but in CD form. I'm not sure this strategy would have worked a decade earlier when we all had tapes and would have worn out the fast forward button but in 1998, this hit platinum and was a giant success. There have now been 83 volumes of NOW!
It also lends itself to be a great time capsule because it spans so many genres. This first album was pretty fucking good. It had way more of an alternative influence than I would have thought. This was such a great time period for pop music as well because it was so varied. So turn that volume way up on your phone (a sentence that would have gotten some weird looks when this came out) and listen along with me as I go through these songs. It's OK if you want to skip Barbie Girl.
Together Again by Janet Jackson
The very first song in NOW! history sounds like it would have been just as in place in 1978 as it did in 1998. It's a pretty fantastic song that is more layered and complicated than a simple disco song. Jackson wrote the song in memory of a friend who died of AIDS and the lyrics hold a wistful importance that is contrasted really effectively by the fun beats behind it. B+
As Long As You Love Me by Backstreet Boys
This is the beginning of the end of good and varied music on Top 40 radio. Backstreet Boys really did bring the boy band sound back to life that had been laid dormant since New Kids On the Block became obsolete. Having said that, this isn't an awful song. Backstreet's Back is goofier (back from what? It was their first album) so I like it more but this might be their next best song. That doesn't mean it's any good. D+
The Way by Fastball
The Way is the perfect song for NOW!. It was never sold as a single. Like Together Again, it has deeper lyrics than you might initially notice. It's based on a news story that lead singer and songwriter Tom Scalzo read regarding a older couple that went missing after heading out to a music festival but apparently got lost on the way. This is a very good song but the best Fastball song is Out Of My Head. A-
Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
On an album that has a couple one-hit wonders on it, this might be the clearest case. It reached as high as 38 on the Top 40 charts but also got a ton of airplay on alternative stations in 1998. Their next single was ignored on the alternative charts and the follow-up album was delayed over a year after their record company changed personnel. It may have been their only hit but it's a damn good song. B+
Avalon. Getty Images.Say You'll Be There by Spice Girls
Easily mockable, the Spice Girls had some entertaining songs. This isn't one of them. This was already two years old when this volume of NOW! came out. They had actually put out another album in 1997 but I imagine while they were planning NOW!, the Spice Girls were the biggest band in the world and the record executives were probably happy to get any song from them on this. Wannabe, Spice Up Your Life and Stop are all better songs by them. C-
All My Life by K-Ci and JoJo
This was number one for three weeks in the winter of 1998. It's a pretty boring ballad. It's not even the best song called All My Life. The Foo Fighters song with the same name is much better. D
Never Ever by All Saints
Much more successful in the UK, All Saints has sold 12 million records despite being known as a one hit wonder here in the States. They have better voices than their much successful counterparts, The Spice Girls. They are just a lot less fun. Never Ever is a pretty fantastic pop song and reached #4 in the US Billboard Top 100. In the UK, it is still the 3rd biggest single by any girl group ever. B
If You Could Only See by Tonic
Another two year old song on this compilation, this might as well be a Goo Goo Dolls song. Despite some really interesting things happening with rock on the alternative front, Tonic was doing basic and safe rock. Not every song on this album so far has been my favorite but this is the first song where I don't know what it's doing here. Yawn. D+
9. MMMbop by Hanson
I'm sure this will open me up to an avalanche of shit but this is a good pop song. For what it is, it might even be great. It creates a fun mood and is iconic. The Dust Brothers, who also did the score for Fight Club produced this song. They also co-wrote, produced and mixed Paul's Boutique, which is the best album of the 1980's. B
10. Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin' Daddies
If admitting I like some Spice Girls songs as well as MMMbop isn't embarrassing enough, I must also admit I really liked ska when it came out. I still think it's pretty good. This song just isn't an ideal example of good ska. I'm happy a ska song is represented here but why couldn't it have been something by Mighty Mighty Boostones or Squirrel Nut Zippers? C
11. Shorty (You Keep Playin' With My Mind) by Imajin
I don't think I have ever heard this song before? It did hit 25 on the Top 100 and was the only song to ever chart for Imajin. Maybe this was a band that NOW! thought would be the next big thing? For an album with 17 songs, I'm not so sure this needed to be on this record. C-
12. Anytime by Brian McKnight
Similar to The Way, this song was also never a single. Brian McKnight has been nominated for 16 Grammys! He's also never won. Before writing this, I couldn't tell you a single Brian McKnight song. Anytime may be incredibly boring but it's not the worst song on this album. D-
13. Barbie Girl by Aqua
The worst song of the decade? The worst song ever? F
14. Karma Police by Radiohead
It's so bizarre something from OK Computer is on a volume of NOW That's What I Call Music! It's even more bizarre that Karma Police is the song that follows Barbie Girl. Radiohead loses me around the time of Kid A but The Bends and OK Computer are two of my favorite albums. There is no better music to listen to while driving through a snowstorm than OK Computer. A
15. I Will Buy You A New Life by Everclear
Everclear was a really good band but their window of success was pretty small. But it fits perfectly here as this is one of their best songs off of So Much For The Afterglow, which is their greatest album. So many awesome songs on that record: Everything to Everyone, Father Of Mine, One Hit Wonder, So Much For The Afterglow and the one that is on this compilation: I Will Buy You A New Life. I love that it tackles hope and struggling equally.
Stone Temple Pilots is a better band than Everclear so I'm not trying to compare the two but I am afraid that both bands seem to have been forgotten about. I guess that's what happens. The big bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam stay in the zeitgeist for a longer period of time but it kind of sucks to see really good bands fall through the cracks of time. History will wipe all of it away eventually and the only thing people will remember about the 20th Century are The Beatles and WWII/Hitler. The greatest music and the worst world leaders somehow last forever in the history books when everything else only lives as long as the generation that enjoyed them. We still know who Mozart and Genghis Kahn are. B+
16. Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz
Music critics hate Lenny Kravitz. He's consistently accused of stealing music whether it be from Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone and others. I don't think anyone listens to Lenny Kravitz and finds his music original or unique. But there is something oddly soothing about it. Maybe that's because it's a sound we've all heard a million times…but it's still pretty good. I don't think Fly Away is his best. I like Let Love Rule and It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over more. Having said that, if Fly Away comes on the radio, I'm not flipping the dial either. If I had to guess any band or singer from the late 90's that would be on an album like this, Lenny Kravitz would have to be the 1st overall pick, right? C+
17. Sex & Candy by Marcy Playground
Similar to Flagpole Sitta, Sex & Candy is one of the best one-hit wonders of the late 90's. Some executives at Capital Records thought this song became too popular and was a "career killer" because it would get them labeled as a one-hit wonder too easily. I think that's bullshit. Beck had Loser and Radiohead had Creep and both had fantastic careers. Most bands would kill for a hit. The problem is the rest of the Marcy Playground album sort of stinks. B+
This is a quality collection of music. Most of these songs are quite good and the curators who put this together managed to land some of the most iconic songs of this time period. I'm going to give the entire album a B+. I'll do more of these but this will be a tough one to top. 1998 was such a great year for music.