"Now Yearbook '78" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – Eighty-Five Single and Album Tracks by ELO, Kate Bush, Wings, ABBA, Gerry Rafferty, 10cc, Chic, Rose Royce, Chaka Khan, Odyssey, Boney M, Boomtown Rats, Elvis Costello, The Undertones, Buzzcocks, The Who, The Motors, The Clash, Blondie, Joe Walsh, Blue Oyster Cult, Billy Joel, The Cars, Patti Smith, Donna Summer, Dan Hartman, Earth, Wind & Fire, Heatwave, Renaissance, Darts, Bill Withers, Elkie Brooks, Foreigner and more (April 2023 UK Sony Music/EMI 4CD Compilation in a Four-Panel Foldout Card Sleeve with Varying Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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CONTENT RATING: *** to ****

AUDIO: **** to *****

"…Ever Fallen In Love (with Someone You Shouldn't've)…"

I have about ten of these 4CD Now Yearbook compilations – most (not all) of which are accompanied by a further Yearbook Extra release of 3CDs - bringing the year haul to well over 130 songs. So a compilation covering a pivotal year in my youth 1978 appealed to me greatly (I bought the 1979 4CD issue as well). 

But the same problem to my listening ears occurs here as it does with all the 80ts titles – you are suckered by quantity (85 Tracks in the case of 1978). Because when you start to play them - especially when you get to CD3 and CD4 – the solid wall of cack Pop and Disco and poor man's Synth R 'n' B soon starts to mount up.

I cannot tell you how unbearable it is to hear Boney M., Dollar, Father Abraham, David Soul, Baccara or Brian and Michael doing Matchstick Men! But then you get The Clash, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, The Police, Kate Bush, The Cars, E.L.O., Gerry Rafferty, Joe Walsh, Blue Öyster Cult, The Who, The Undertones, Boomtown Rats and genuinely great Soul-Funk in Chic, Hot Chocolate, Crown Heights Affair, Earth Wind & Fire, Heatwave, Chaka Khan, Bill Withers, Commodores, and Rose Royce – to name but a few. 

Maybe my addled, aging and woke-infested noggin is unable to process memories properly anymore – but I do not recall 1978 as being so overtly awful chart-wise. Agreed - when you play CD1 and CD2 – it must be said the tunes are abundant - and given that these sets are Sony Music/EMI – the audio is uniformly top notch (most are in fact highlighted as Remasters from the 2000s onwards in the small print inside). 

But the tendency with these Now sets is to go down the less-trodden Pop Path - to get out there, songs that haven't been on compilations before. So, when you get to most of CD3 and CD4 – the listen in my book takes a nosedive. The flaw with this 'let's do Top 5 to Top 40-only' is that there was so much you want to forget, and of course other gems they could have chosen but have been left off. It's always a pick 'n' mix I know – Hitsville UK – rash-inducing or no. 

In their favour, however, these 4CD sets start out at about ten quid, but after a few months are quickly reduced to six or seven quid which frankly represents serious value for money. You may not be getting anything packaging-wise, but at least 40 to 50% of the choices will please and the audio is crackerlackin'. Here be the details for the late great seventy-eight…

UK released 28 April 2023 - "Now Yearbook '78" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Sony Music/EMI CDYBNOW78 / 0196587830922 (Barcode 196587830922) is a 4CD Compilation in a Four-Panel Foldout Card Sleeve with Single Edits, Album Versions and Various Remasters that plays out as follows:

CD1 (78:36 minutes):
1. Mr. Blue Sky – ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA 
2. Baker Street (Single Edit, 4:06 minutes) – GERRY RAFFERTY
3. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? – ROD STEWART 
4. Take A Chance On Me - ABBA
5. Rivers Of Babylon – BONEY M.
6. Dreadlock Holiday – 10cc
7. Uptown Top Ranking – ALTHEA and DONNA
8. MacArthur Park – DONNA SUMMER (Single Edit)
9. I'm Every Woman – CHAKA KHAN
10. If I Can't Have You – YVONNE ELLIMAN
11. Everybody Dance – CHIC (Single Edit)
12. Native New Yorker - ODYSSEY
13. Wishing On A Star – ROSE ROYCE
14. Three Times A Lady – COMMODORES (featuring Lionel Richie)
15. Dancing In The City – MARSHALL HAIN
16. Substitute – CLOUT
17. It's A Heartache – BONNIE TYLER
18. If You Can't Give Me Love – SUZIE QUATRO
19. With A Little Luck – WINGS
20. The Man With The Child In His Eyes – KATE BUSH

CD2 (78:13 minutes): 
1. Rat Trap – THE BOOMTOWN RATS
2. Teenage Kicks – THE UNDERTONES
3. Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) - BUZZCOCKS
4. Hong Kong Garden – SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES
5. Top Of The Pops – THE REZILLOS
6. Hanging On The Telephone - BLONDIE
7. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea – ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS
8. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais – THE CLASH
9.  Down In The Tube Station At Midnight – THE JAM
10. What A Waste – IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS
11. Because The Night – PATTI SMITH (Bruce Springsteen cover, exclusive)
12. My Best Friend's Girl – THE CARS
13. Airport – THE MOTORS
14. 5.7.0.5. – CITY BOY
15. Love Is Like Oxygen – SWEET
16. Part-Time Love – ELTON JOHN
17. Movin' Out (Anthony’s Song) – BILLY JOEL
18. Who Are You – THE WHO
19. Cold As Ice – FOREIGNER
20. Life's Been Good (Single Edit, 4:37 minutes) – JOE WALSH
21. (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Single Edit, 3:40 minutes) – BLUE ÖYSTER CULT
22. Forever Autumn – JUSTIN HAYWARD [of The Moody Blues]

CD3 (77:31 minutes): 
1. Le Freak - CHIC
2. Boogie Oogie Oogie – A TASTE OF HONEY
3. More Than A Woman - TAVARES
4. I Love The Nightlife (Disco ‘Round) – ALICIA BRIDGES
5. Instant Replay – DAN HARTMAN
6. Let's All Chant – MICHAEL ZAGER BAND
7. Do It Do It Again (A Far L'Amore Comincia Tu) – RAFFAELLA CARRÁ
8. Sorry, I'm A Lady – BACCARA
9. Singin' In The Rain – SHEILA and B. DEVOTION
10. From East To West – VOYAGE
11. I Love You – DONNA SUMMER
12. Givin' Up Givin' In – THE THREE DEGREES
13. I Can't Stand The Rain – ERUPTION
14. Automatic Lover – DEE D. JACKSON
15. I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper – SARAH BRIGHTMAN and HOT GOSSIP
16. Galaxy Of Love – CROWN HEIGHTS AFFAIR
17. Come Back And Finish What You Started – GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS
18. Every 1's A Winner – HOT CHOCOLATE
19. Fantasy – EARTH, WIND & FIRE
20. Always And Forever – HEATWAVE
21. Love Don't Live Here Anymore – ROSE ROYCE

CD4 (76:30 minutes): 
1. Denis – BLONDIE
2. Hopelessly Devoted To You – OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
3. Sandy – JOHN TRAVOLTA
4. The Boy From New York City – DARTS
5. Lovely Day – BILL WITHERS
6. Love Is In The Air – JOHN PAUL YOUNG
7. Copacabana – BARRY MANILOW
8. Northern Lights – RENAISSANCE
9. If I Had Words – SCOTT FITZGERALD and YVONNE KEELEY
10. Brown Girl In The Ring – BONEY M.
11. Figaro – BROTHERHOOD OF MAN
12. Bad Old Days – CO-CO
13. Shooting Star – DOLLAR
14. Never Let Her Slip Away – ANDREW GOLD
15. Lucky Stars – DEAN FRIEDMAN with DENISE MARSA
16. Walk In Love – THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER
17. Let's Have A Quiet Night In – DAVID SOUL
18. Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue – CRYSTAL GAYLE
19. Don't Cry Out Loud – ELKIE BROOKS
20. Oh What A Circus - DAVID ESSEX
21. Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs – BRIAN and MICHAEL
22. Smurf Song – FATHER ABRAHAM

The basic edition has a four-panel foldout card sleeve with each CD in a printed-info pouch on the inside (see photos). There is a Limited Edition Hardback DigiBook version that has liner notes on all the songs – Sony Music/EMI CDYBXNOW78 (Barcode 196587831028) – and even a truncated 3LP VINYL variant on Sony Music/EMI LPYBNOW78 (Barcode  0196587830816) in PINK VINYL – both also released 23 April 2023.

Some anomalies first that aren't apparent from the packaging either rear or inside. Although it isn't stated as such, the Gerry Rafferty "Baker Street" track is the seldom seen Single Edit at 4:06 minutes when most compilations use the full album version at 6:11. I have the 2CD Collector's Edition of the album "City To City" from September 2011 and even that does not have the single mix. I think I know why. There has always been something off about it - like the sound is wrong – cannot quite work out why – but the remastered album version done by Denis Blackham for the 2011 twofer CD is great – here the sound on the Single Mix waffles in and out. It's good, but not great. 

The Blue Oyster Cult song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is again a single mix without saying so (3:40 minutes). I mention this because the song was first issued as a 45-single in the USA and UK in July 1976 (two years before the date of this compilation) but it bombed in Blighty. After the studio set "Spectres" garnered interest in the American Rock Band in the UK in 1977, CBS UK went at breaking the band again by using the studio cut of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" in May 1978 on a reissued 45 (hence the song's inclusion here). But this time CBS used the full album version at 5:05 minutes. So by all rights you should be getting that 5:05 minute variant here – but I suspect because of time limitations on CD2 – Sony/EMI have used the shorter mix (technically from two years earlier).

Still enjoy "Uptown Top Ranking" by Althea and Donna (they inhabit a rare club of No 1. one-hit wonders) and the Rod Stewart, Abba and 10cc ultra-commercial moments sound amazing in remastered quality. The Chic Organization stuff is single mixes too and how fab is it – their material coming on fifty-years soon and still sounding fresh. The smoochers "Wishing On A Star", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and "Three Times A Lady" sound beautiful and pack a wallop to this day. The energy on CD2 is dazzling – The Rats, The Undertones, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie, The Rezillos, The Jam, The Cars and Patti Smith doing Bruce's exclusive "Because The Night" all the way to the single mixes of Joe Walsh, The Who and BOC – it feels like a superb one-stop listen. And you are still taken aback by Kate Bush and "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" or even the edginess in Elvis Costello's "(I Don't Want To Go) Chelsea" and the street smarts of The Cars worrying about "My Best Friend's Girl" over on CD1. Discoveries and familiars...

But CD3 with its overtly Disco and Soul run loses the plot in too many places – A Taste of Honey and Tavares being great shape-throwing fun – but other gick like Sarah Brightman, John Travolta, Raffaella Carra and Barry Manilow is awful. There are a few great rediscovery moments like Blondie, Andrew Gold, Bill Withers, Renaissance, and Crystal Gayle making our eyes blue and watery on CD4, but the rest are a wasteland.

The 4CD compilation "Now Yearbook '78" offers a whole lotta hotcha fun-listens and wavey remembrances at a cheap stack-em-high price - but with the caveat that you taper those expectations once you get in deep. 

Yes sir, I can boogie oogie…I maybe every woman but I am just not sure I want to do a Donna in the Summer ever again, never mind now…