Various – Now That's What I Call Music 5

Now 5 was released in August 1985, the first time that the first Now of the year wasn't released in March or April.

Record 1 Side 1

1. Duran Duran - A View to a Kill: Great theme to the James Bond film, the final to star Roger Moore.
2. Scritti Politti - The Word Girl:
3. Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F: Great movie theme.
4. Fine Young Cannibals - Johnny Come Home:
5. Dead or Alive - In Too Deep: Great song from Pete Burns and co.
6. Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy - Icing on the Cake: Great follow up to 'Kiss Me'.
7. Kool and the Gang - Cherish: Great track.
8. Paul Young - Every Time You Go Away: Great cover of Hall and Oates.

Record 1 Side 2

1. Marillion - Kayleigh: Great song. I have a cousin called Kayleigh born around this time.
2. Bryan Ferry - Slave to Love: Great song from the Roxy Music singer.
3. David Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group: This song doesn't appear on the 2020 CD release. Great collaboration.
4. Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me): Great song from 'The Breakfast Club'.
5. The Power Station - Get It On: Great cover of the T Rex song.
6. China Crisis - Black Man Ray: Great riff.
7. Phil Collins - One More Night: Pretty song from Phil.

Record 2 Side 1

1. Sister Sledge - Frankie: Catchy song.
2. Mai Tai - History: Great song.
3. Simply Red - Money's Too Tight (To Mention): I've always thought the opening riff was similar to 'Layla'. Great song from Mick Hucknall and co.
4. Steve Arrington - Feel So Real: Great dance track.
5. Jaki Graham - Round and Around: Love the mellow vibes
6. The Conway Brothers - Turn It Up: Great uptempo track.
7. Loose Ends - Magic Touch: Great track.
8. The Commentators - N-N-Nineteen Not Out: Hilarious cricket parody of Paul Hardcastle's '19'.

Record 2 Side 2

1. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire: Another great song from the album of the same name.
2. The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down: Another great song from Paul Weller.
3. Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine: Great summer anthem.
4. Gary Moore and Phil Lynott - Out in the Fields: Great song from the Thin Lizzy .
5. The Damned - The Shadow of Love: Great goth song.
6. Howard Jones - Life In One Day: Another great song from Howard.
7. Jimmy Nail - Love Don't Live Here Anymore: Great cover of the Rose Royce song.

Great album, but as always, there are some songs that missed out:

Paul Hardcastle - 19: Would have loved a shout out to the original.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome: Great title track from Frankie's first album.
Dire Straits - So Far Away: Great song from 'Brothers In Arms', the biggest selling album of the 80s.
Russ Abbot - Atmosphere: Great party song.
The Art of Noise - Close (To the Edit)
Kirsty MacColl - A New England: Great cover of Billy Bragg. Speaking of which...
Billy Bragg - Between the Wars: Great EP track.
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Another great song from Roland and Curt.
Alison Moyet - That Ole Devil Called Love: Great jazz cover from Alf.

Mine has different runout texts that are etched, not stamped.
A is NOW.5.1-A1 and all sides have 'penthouse' stamped.

Lazy attitude toward the CD reissues, so many 'wrong' versions as others have pointed out. Would be nice to have a prroper reissue series one day........surely the masters are available.

On my original LP version, Every Time You Go Away is missing half a bar at the beginning of the track. Is it the same for everyone else or do I have an uber rare mispressing of some sort?

The initial release of this was not one of the greatest NOW compilations, but it does however represent a fair and unbiased snapshot of the pop charts at the time. Which something one doesn't get from retrospective compilations.

Having compared this new CD issue with the original release, I have found the following changes:

'This Is Not America' doesn't feature at all due to NOW apparently being unable to license it this time.

Tracks by Scritti Politti, Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy, Paul Young, Marillion, Bryan Ferry, Sister Sledge, Simply Red all appear on the CD in longer ‘album’ versions and not the 7” mixes included on the original.

In contrast to this, ‘Cherish’ by Kool & The Gang is featured on the CD in a shorter version than the original release.

There are one or two other tracks that have around 5 seconds difference, but that can be explained away in simply shorter fades and don’t really result in being different versions.

There may be other discrepancies, but that's what I've spotted - hope that's useful.

"This Is Not America" won't be on the 2020 CD!

Coming out on CD for the first on April 3 2020. It will be interesting to see how many of the wrong mixes are used!