VA - NOW 90 That's What I Call Music! (2015)

Now That's What I Call Music! 90 or Now! 90 is a double-disc compilation album which was released in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2015. It is the 90th edition of the UK Now! series and available on CD and downloadable format. The Official Charts Company reported the album as the fastest selling album in 2015 so far, selling 264,000 copies in its first week of sales.
Now 90 features seven songs which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart: "Uptown Funk", "Thinking Out Loud", "King", "Hold My Hand", "Something I Need", "These Days" and "I Don't Care". The version of the Sam Smith song "Lay Me Down" which is included on the album is the radio edit of the album version instead of the Comic Relief version featuring John Legend which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.
Peak positions: UK Compilations Chart - #1, UK Download Albums Chart - #1
NOW That's What I Call Music! (ofeat.en shortened to NOW!) is a long-running series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom by Polygram (as Universal)/EMI/Sony Music/Virgin Records (The Big Four record labels); spinoff series were later introduced in South Africa (1984) and many other countries worldwide, including the United States in 1998. Since its launch in 1983, the series has amassed over 100 million album sales worldwide.
The first NOW! compilation appeared in November 1983 and collected thirty UK hit singles from that year on a double vinyl LP or cassette. The concept of a compilation of recent hit singles was not new; Ronco and K-tel had been issuing single-disc collections since the early 1970s. However, by spreading tracks across two discs instead of one, the NOW! series was able to achieve better sound quality (tracks were ofeat.en edited to fit a running time on K-Tel and Ronco single disc compilations).
The other major difference of the NOW! series was its collaborative nature between major record labels. Virgin agreed a deal with EMI, which allowed a greater number of major hits to be included (the first album in the series boasted of "eleven number ones" on its sleeve, something previously unheard-of). The album went to number one and soon had a major rival in CBS/WEA's The Hits Album which adopted a similar format to NOW! The two series co-existed for the rest of the 1980s, but when Universal joined the collaboration the NOW! series dominated commercially.
Although the rate of release varied in the early days, it has now settled down to three per year: one release around Easter, another during the summer, and a third around November. The UK series continues to follow the double-album format, now exploiting the capacity of the CD to include between forty and forty-six songs over its two discs. At the current time, the NOW series are only released on CD and digital download formats. Previously the NOW series was available on Vinyl (ended in 1996 with NOW 35); audio cassette (ceased in 2006 with the final cassette being NOW 63) & MiniDisc (started with NOW 43 in 1999 and ended with NOW 48 in 2001) formats, with the decline of popularity with these formats, NOWs are no longer issued on them.