Hits was a compilation album series which ran in the United Kingdom for over 20 years between 1984 and 2006. It was compiled as a joint venture, usually between the compilation arms of the Sony BMG and Warner Music groups (e.g. Warner Strategic Marketing or Global Television) to rival the Now That's What I Call Music series that had launched a year earlier in 1983, compiled by rival companies EMI and Virgin. Initially, the Hits brand was arguably as popular as its main rival, with volumes 1 to 8 all reaching Platinum status, however, five years into the Hits run, a drop in sales saw several rebrands. From 1989 onwards, rather than the albums just simply being labelled 'Hits' and the issue number, the Hits albums were released with alternative and names such as Monster Hits, The Hit Pack or simply just The Hits Album. However, from 1995 onwards, the series was relaunched again for another successful run with the varied titles New Hits, Fresh Hits, Big Hits and Huge Hits followed by the year of release becoming the new format.
In 2001, an unsuccessful attempt at refreshing the Hits brand by renaming the series to Music: The Definitive Hits Collection saw the series going full circle and the Hits 50 release was a return to the original numbering format the series abandoned in 1989. Hits 60 is sometimes considered the last 'Hits' album, although Summer Hits 2006 in fact is.
Christmas 'Hits', Dance 'Hits' and Club 'Hits' have also been released.
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The original run of The Hits Album was a successful compilation brand with 14 albums released between 1984 and 1991, with most peaking at #1 or #2 on the UK Top 100 Album Chart. All of the albums from this period achieved at least a Platinum BPI Award, with the exception of Volume 9. The series was a joint venture by CBS and WEA, in response to EMI and Virgin Records starting the Now That's What I Call Music! series in 1983. RCA Ariola (later BMG) joined the partnership in 1986. The Hits collections brought together all the big hits from the partnering record companies and was a music collectors companion to the popular Now! releases. The Hits albums often featured songs by artists such as Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and other big artists that did not appear on rival Now compilations and this made the albums particularly popular. The first Hits Album managed to keep the rival Now album (Now 4) from the #1 position in December 1984, spending a total of 7 weeks at the top of the UK Top 100 Album chart. After the first album (now commonly known as Hits 1) was released, the The Hits Album plus an issue number was released through to 1989 and stopped at the 10th volume (Hits 10). Subsequently releases through to 1991 were released without an issue number and this successive refreshing of the brand could be seen as minor relaunches of the series, each time in the face of the continuing success and strength of the rival Now! brand. The LP and CD variations in the series were often called "The Hits Album (Volume number)" whilst the cassette tapes were often called "The Hits Cassette (Volume number)" or "The Hits Tape (Volume number)"
In 1986, Hits 5 was the first album of the series to be released on a single CD, with Hits 7 being the first to be released as a double-CD the following year. A video compilation was often released at the same time as the albums, but not always. Like the Now! collections, the packaging of the Hits albums contained pictures and background information about the tracks, including chart positions. This appeared in the gatefold of the standard album, and later, in a small booklet with the CD releases.
From late 1989, the albums in the Hits series started deviating from their original chronological number system and began using alternative titles such as Monster Hits and The Hit Pack. They are however an extension of the original series as these albums were all issued by BMG, CBS and WEA. and also contained the word Hit somewhere in the title. From 1989 to 1991, the The Hits Album's were released with these titles:
Both Monster Hits featured a cartoon monster gimmick in the artwork and advertisting campaign, in a similar way a cartoon pig was used during earlier Now That's What I Call Music releases. These two albums are listed with the previous Hits albums in "The Complete Book of British Charts".
The Hit Pack was unique because it was released on LP and cassette with 24 tracks, but only as a 21 track single-CD. A year earlier in 1989, Now That's What I Call Music 16 had been advertised as containing 3 bonus tracks, although these were found on the double-CD format.
Listed as The Hits Album 15 in some publications due to the catalogue number 'CD HITS 15'. The suffix 'fifteen' is not included after The Hits Album anywhere on this albums artwork.
The partners behind the series retired the brand in 1991. There was not a version of The Hits Album 14 issued by BMG, CBS or WEA in any title variation or format and technically, what is listed as The Hits Album 15 is actually the fourteenth volume of the series.
With the Hits brand retired, Telstar Records launched the Hits '93 compilation series in association with its parent distribution company BMG, who originally joined the Hits series with WEA and CBS in 1986. Unlike the albums put out by the respective Sony BMG and Warner labels of the era, Hits '93 was formatted as a single-CD and featured a larger percentage of dance acts than the normal Hits releases. However even though these albums could be seen as an extension of other Telstar Hit compilations (such as 100% Hits) these albums were categorized under the Hits brand in the Complete Book Of British Charts, which was probably due to BMG's former and Telstar's subsequent involvement in the series. The series ran for four volumes during 1993, and one volume in early 1994 with the concept being replaced by the resurrection of Telstar/BMG's short-lived version of The Hits Album later in the year, which also lasted one volume.
Whilst the Hits series devolped a new era for 1995-2000 (see below), BMG and Telstar would go on to release Pure Hits 97 in 1997 which was (spiritually) a sequel to the Hits '93 and Hits '94 series to due similar cover art.
Following an album called Hitz Blitz released by Global Television, The Hits Album was relaunched in December 1995 (with the BMG compilations arm being known as Global Television, and WSM - warner.esp) but this time the numbering system was replaced in favour of different titles such as New Hits or Big Hits with the year normally following the word 'hits'. This was the most successful branding of the Hits series since the earlier volumes, and both Sony Music TV and compilation specialist company Telstar Records also joined forces with BMG and WSM later in the series run. Originally, the albums were divided into four distinct parts (and were labeled as such): Part One contained the biggest hits; Part Two had all the big dance hits; Part Three featured indie and rock tracks and Part Four would generally hoover up any left over hits the compilers had access to. This theme ended in 1997. Unlike the earlier Hits albums (and indeed all Now compilations), the inlay booklets contained no pictures or trivia relating to the track in any of the titles released during this period except for copyright details, which would have needed to be included.
The front covers usually looked quite similar to the Now albums. Both volumes of 'Fresh Hits' in 2000, however, featured a brand new design on the front cover.
There were also some albums titled 'The Greatest Hits of' (followed by a year), which were released in 1997 and 1998 by Telstar. They are not considered part of the main Hits series though.
New Hits 96 holds the distinction for the most consecutive weeks at #1 in the UK Top 20 Compilation Chart since its launch on 14 January 1996. It spent 9 weeks at #1 from 18 May 1996 to 13 July 1996. It shares this record with Now 29.
There was no Hits 98 release. It is unknown why to this day.
This was the first in the relaunched series by Global Television and Warner Bros, then trading as WMTV, and was released in December 1995. Simply 'Hits' and the following year would then be released in December, beginning that year's series of collections.
Always released in March.
Sony Music TV had rejoined the Hits venture by this album's release in 1996; Fresh Hits were always released in July.
Year-end Hits collections were always preceded with Huge and were released around November.
Additional title, added to the series in December 1997 without a year suffix, the next and subsequent releases with the title Big Hits were usually released in September.
One album was released in 1995 with the name.
Hits albums with the genre of dance music. One volume released 2000.
In 2001, yet another relaunch occurred. In an attempt to appeal to the broader range of Now That's What I Call Music buyers, Sony BMG and WSM decided to rebrand the Hits series with a more classy name and image and "Music : The Definitive Hits Collection" was launched in March. "Music... Part 2" was released three months later but the new concept failed to catch-on with neither compilation reaching the Top 3. So, the Hits series went full-circle and returned to the album numbering format it originally abandoned in 1991: The series was rebranded to Hits 50 in September 2001. Hits 50 and Hits 51 featured 50 tracks, with 25 tracks on each disc, although each song was heavily edited and the new format was disapproved and sales for Hits 51 were lower than Hits 50 possibly because buyers were aware of the 50 track edited format. This tradition was stopped, with the final '50 track' album being Hits 51. Hits 52 featured 40 tracks which were not heavily unedited. Hits 52 also started another short tradition, which is to feature a music video as a bonus feature on CD2 when CD2 is entered into a computer. The final volume to feature a music video was Hits 54. Hits 52, Hits 53 and Hits 54 also featured a new tagline, '2 CDs Packed With Hits'. Hits 55 through to Hits 59 were branded with a new tagline 40 Massive Chart Hits.
2004's Hits 60 was ironically being issued on the same day as Now That's What I Call Music! 59 to see if the 'Hits' album could beat sells in the 'NOW!' albums. In the week's ending chart, Now! 59 was number one in the compilations chart whilst Hits 60 was behind at #5, and sales for Hits 60 were much smaller than sells for Now! 59. Hits had only ever tried to release their volume on the same day as it's NOW! counterpart once before, with Hits 52 alongside Now 51.
After Hits 60 was issued in 2004, the numbering system was stopped, with what would have been Hits 61 being Red Hot Hits. The numbering was probably stopped due to the poor sales of Hits 60. Since Red Hot Hits, only few more 'Hits' albums have been released. Essential Hits was released in late 2005, followed by Summer Hits 2006 in Summer 2006. However, Summer Hits 2006 ended up being the final Hits album, as there have not been any more releases since (as of July 2011) bar an expanded edition of Christmas Hits.
Some 'Hits' albums were themed to Dance and Club music.
Telstar released some dance-themed albums including Club Hits 98 and Club Hits 99. Despite Hits appearing in the name of the albums, they are not considered part of the actual Hits series.
Global's Dance Hits 2000 was released in 2000, and was the first proper Hits album themed to dance music.
Inspired teamed up with Sony to release Big Club Hits, which was released 10 September 2001. Inspire and Sony then released Club Hits 2002, on 18 February 2002. Club Hits 2003 was the follow-up album, first released 27 January 2003.
Hits albums themed to Christmas music had begun in 2001. The releases all had the same name, but with different subtitles, and were:
| Date Charted | Title | Record company | Chart position (duration / weeks) |
Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984-12-01 | Hits 1 | CBS / WEA | #1 (7) | Double LP / MC |
| 1985-04-13 | Hits 2 | CBS / WEA | #1 (6) | Double LP / MC |
| 1985-12-07 | Hits 3 | CBS / WEA | #2 | Double LP / MC |
| 1986-03-29 | Hits 4 | CBS / WEA | #1 (4) | Double LP / MC |
| 1986-11-22 | Hits 5 [1] | CBS / WEA / RCA / Ariola | #1 (2) | Double LP / MC; Single CD |
| 1987-07-22 | Hits 6 | CBS / WEA / RCA / Ariola | #1 (5) | Double LP / MC; Single CD |
| 1987-12-05 | Hits 7 [2] | CBS / WEA / RCA / Ariola | #2 | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1988-07-30 | Hits 8 | CBS / WEA / BMG | #2 | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1988-12-17 | The Hits Album 9 | CBS / WEA / BMG | #5 | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1989-01-14 | The Hits Album 9 [3] | CBS / WEA / BMG | #4 | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1989-06-03 | Hits 10 | CBS / WEA / BMG | #1 (6) | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1989-12-02 | Monster Hits | CBS / WEA / BMG | #2 | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1990-08-11 | Snap It Up! Monster Hits 2 | CBS / WEA / BMG | #2 | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1990-12-29 | The Hit Pack | CBS / WEA / BMG | #2 | Single MC / Single CD |
| 1991-08-10 | The Hits Album (15) [4] | CBS / WEA / BMG | #1 (2) | Double LP / MC / CD |
| 1993-02-20 | Hits 93 Volume 1 | Telstar / BMG | #1 (3) | Single MC / CD |
| 1993-05-29 | Hits 93 Volume 2 | Telstar / BMG | #2 | Single MC / CD |
| 1993-04-13 | Hits 93 Volume 3 | Telstar / BMG | #2 | Single MC / CD |
| 1993-08-14 | Hits 93 Volume 4 | Telstar / BMG | #2 | Single MC / CD |
| 1994-03-19 | Hits 94 Volume 1 | Telstar / BMG | #3 | Single MC / CD |
| 1994-10-15 | The Ultimate Hits Album | Telstar / BMG | #11 | Single MC / CD |
| 1995-08-01 | Hitz Blitz | Global Television | #2 | Single CD |
| 1995-12-23 | Hits 96 | Global Television | #1 (5) | Double MC / CD |
| 1996-05-01 | New Hits 96 | warner.esp / Global / Sony TV | #1 (9) | Double MC / CD |
| 1996-08-31 | Fresh Hits 96 | warner.esp / Global / Sony TV | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 1996-11-09 | Huge Hits 1996 [7] | warner.esp / Global / Sony TV | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 1996-12-21 | Hits 97 | warner.esp / Global / Sony TV | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 1997-04-26 | New Hits 97 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (4) | Double MC / CD |
| 1997-08-16 | Fresh Hits 97 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (3) | Double MC / CD. |
| 1997-11-01 | Huge Hits 1997 [7] | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (1) | Double MC / CD |
| 1997-12-20 | Big Hits | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #4 | Double MC / CD |
| 1998-04-04 | New Hits 98 | warner.esp / Global / Sony TV | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 1998-07-04 | Fresh Hits 98 | warner.esp / Global / Sony TV | #1 (6) | Double MC / CD |
| 1998-09-19 | Big Hits 98 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (5) | Double MC / CD |
| 1998-11-07 | Huge Hits 1998 [7] | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 1998-12-19 | Hits 99 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 1999-04-03 | New Hits 99 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (1) | Double MC / CD |
| 1999-07-03 | Fresh Hits 99 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (3) | Double MC / CD |
| 1999-09-04 | Big Hits 99 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 1999-09-04 | Huge Hits 1999 [7] | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (4) | Double MC / CD |
| 1999-12-18 | Hits 2000 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2000-02-21 | Dance Hits 2000 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #4 | Double MC / CD |
| 2000-03-25 | New Hits 2000 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 2000-07-15 | Fresh Hits 2000 Volume 1 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #2 | Single MC / CD |
| 2000-09-16 | Fresh Hits 2000 Volume 2 | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #2 | Single MC / CD |
| 2000-11-04 | Huge Hits 2000 [7] | Global / Sony TV / warner.esp | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2000-12-16 | Hits 2001 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2001-03-31 | Music: The Definitive Hits Collection | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #4 | Triple CD |
| 2001-06-23 | Music: The Definitive Hits Collection 2 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #7 | Triple CD |
| 2001-09-10 | Big Club Hits | Inspired / Sony | #5 | Double CD |
| 2001-09-29 | Hits 50 [5] | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2001-12-15 | Hits 51 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #10 | Double MC / CD |
| 2002-02-18 | Club Hits 2002 | Inspired / Sony | #5 | Double CD |
| 2002-04-06 | Hits 52 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2002-08-10 | Hits 53 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2002-11-02 | Hits 54 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 2002-11-30 | Huge Hits 2003 [7] | BMG / Sony / Telstar / WSM | #4 | Double MC / CD |
| 2003-01-27 | Club Hits 2003 | Inspired / Sony | #12 | Double CD |
| 2003-04-12 | Hits 55 | BMG / Sony / WSM / Telstar / WSM | #1 (2) | Double MC / CD |
| 2003-07-26 | Hits 56 | BMG / Sony / Telstar | #1 (1) | Double MC / CD |
| 2003-11-01 | Huge Hits 2004 [7] | BMG / Sony / Telstar / WSM | #3 | Double MC / CD |
| 2003-12-13 | Hits 57 | Sony BMG / WSM / Telstar | #5 | Double MC / CD |
| 2004-06-12 | Hits 58 [6] | Sony BMG / WSM / Telstar | #1 (1) | Double MC / CD |
| 2004-10-02 | Hits 59 [6] | Sony BMG / WSM | #2 | Double MC / CD |
| 2004-11-27 | Hits 60 [6] | Sony BMG / WSM | #5 | Triple CD |
| 2005-03-21 | Red Hot Hits | Sony BMG / WSM | Unknown | Double CD |
| 2005-12-05 | Essential Hits | Sony BMG / WSM | Unknown | Triple CD |
| 2006-06-26 | Summer Hits 2006 | Sony BMG / WSM | Unknown | Double CD |
Inline:
General: