The definitive list of best 'NOW That's What I Call Music!' albums

"NOW That's What I Call Music!,” the global franchise that collects the biggest songs of the day into greatest-hits compilations, celebrated a major milestone in August , with the release of the 100th installment of the original U.K. series.

Stateside listeners are most familiar with the American editions of the “NOW” albums, with tracklists that function as pop music time capsules, reminding us all of the songs we were all obsessed with that season. And for listeners of a certain generation, the “NOW” albums – purchased as CDs, ready to be inserted in a Walkman – were an essential introduction to popular music, a Spotify “Today’s Top Hits” playlist for the preinternet age.

The American “NOW” albums may only be on volume 67, out Aug. 3 and featuring of-the-moment hits including Post Malone’s “Psycho” and Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up.” But look on the bright side – that’s 67 albums spanning 20 years of chart-topping history, ready to be mined for nostalgia. Below, revisit the 14 essential "NOW" albums, from the franchise's very first volumes to today.

Volume 2, 1999

Skip the spotty first volume of the "NOW" franchise and start with the second album, a rundown of what pop music looked like going into the new millennium with enduring hits from Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time" to the Backstreet Boys' "I'll Never Break Your Heart" and Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)."

Volume 4, 2000

Even better is Volume 4, with era-defining songs such as Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting for Tonight," Eiffel 65's pulsing "Blue (Da Ba Dee)," Train's roots rock classic "Meet Virginia" and Blink-182's defining hit "All the Small Things," alongside one of the decade's best one-hit wonders, Macy Gray's "I Try."

Volume 6, 2001

2001 may have been the single strongest year for "NOW" albums, with volumes 6 through 8 among the franchise's very best. Volume 6 gets the nod for its lineup of early 2000s greats — Britney Spears' "Stronger," NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" and Backstreet Boys' "Shape of My Heart" all show up – joined by rock hits that still hold up, from Coldplay's "Yellow" to Creed's magnum opus "With Arms Wide Open." Bonus points for the novelty inclusion of Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me."

Volume 8, 2001

There's a lot to love on Volume 8, with eternal singles "Bootylicious" from Destiny's Child and Usher's "U Got It Bad" to the meandering funk of Gorillaz's classic "Clint Eastwood" and – maybe the best pop punk song of its era – Sum 41's "Fat Lip." Also, it's only fitting that the "Shrek" soundtrack is represented in some way on a 2001 "NOW" album, seen here via Smash Mouth's cover of "I'm a Believer."

Volume 15, 2004

Britney Spears' "Toxic" is maybe the best pop single of the 2000s, featured on Volume 15 alongside favorites including "It's My Life" from No Doubt and Beyoncé's "Me, Myself and I" to singer-songwriter anthems, including Sheryl Crow's "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and Norah Jones' "Sunrise," as well as some hilarious relics of mid-2000s hip hop, such asLudacris' "Stand Up" and Chingy's "Holidae In."

Volume 19, 2005

Bookended by two of the 2000s' most enduring hits, Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" and The Killers' "Mr. Brightside," Volume 19 features some fun one-hit wonders: Amerie's "1 Thing" is still a classic, and Anna Nalick's "Breathe (2 AM)" takes us back to the nights we spent crying at early "Grey's Anatomy" episodes.

Volume 20, 2005

Beyond enduring dancefloor hits such as Missy Elliott's "Lose Control" and Rihanna's "Pon de Replay," the real gems on Volume 20 are the rock hits toward the second half of the album. Kelly Clarkson was at her peak emo levels with "Behind These Hazel Eyes," Weezer has the lovably dumb "Beverly Hills," and Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Goin Down" is the track that rocketed them to mainstream fame. And "Fix You," for all its stadium-sized dramatics, remains one of Coldplay's very best singles.

Volume 30, 2009

At first glance, this is a mix of lesser singles from notable stars and forgotten singles that the 2000s left behind. Yet just as enduring as Volume 30's tracklist are the music trends that some of these songs helped shape. This album goes beyond combined heavyweight powers of "Just Dance" from Lady Gaga and Britney Spears' "Womanizer." "Heartless" is from Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreak," which went on to dictate the next decade of hip-hop trends, and Kevin Rudolf and Lil Wayne's bizarre country-rap collaboration "Let It Rock" could be the direct spiritual predecessor to Post Malone.

Volume 33, 2010

Beyond obvious pop favorites such as Kesha's "TiK ToK" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and the solid-gold country anthems "Need You Now" from Lady Antebellum and Taylor Swift's "Fearless," Volume 33 captures what a strangely hilarious year 2010 was for music, from the absurd Young Money posse cut "BedRock" and the doofy ukuleles of Train's "Hey, Soul Sister", to the bizarre phenomenon that was Owl City's "Fireflies."

Volume 38, 2011

Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" kicks off this monster compilation of thumping pop hits from Rihanna ("S&M"), Britney Spears ("Hold It Against Me"), Usher ("More"), Kesha ("Blow") and Katy Perry ("E.T." featuring Kanye West), since apparently, every star artist was making booming club bangers in 2011. Also heard here is Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now," which deserves to be remembered for Busta Rhymes' tongue-twisting appearance, and the iconic Adele single with a chorus that we still don't quite know what it means, "Rolling in the Deep."

Volume 46, 2013

This collection of critical favorites is less forgettable than it first appears. "Locked Out of Heaven" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" may not be Bruno Mars' and Taylor Swift's most popular respective hits, but they're both top-three best-ever singles for the artists. Pink and Nate Ruess' sweet collaboration "Just Give Me a Reason" still holds up today, and Sky Ferreira's "Everything is Embarrassing," a song that never reached the pop heights it deserved at the time, is rightfully included here, too.

Volume 60, 2016

Come for bona fide 2010s classics such as "This Is What You Came For" from Calvin Harris, featuring Rihanna, and Ariana Grande's "Into You," stay for Charlie Puth's best hit to date – "We Don't Talk Anymore," his enduringly moody collaboration with Selena Gomez – and Hailee Steinfeld's sneakily good "Starving."

Volume 63, 2017

Call it recency bias, but 2017 was a blessed time for pop hits, as heard on Volume 63's tracklist. We were lucky to have "I'm the One" and "Slide" as DJ Khaled and Calvin Harris' respective songs-of-the-summer contributions, "Congratulations" is still Post Malone's most essential single, and until Selena Gomez releases her long-awaited new album, her Talking Heads homage "Bad Liar" remains enough to tide us over.

Volume 64, 2017

One "NOW" volume couldn't contain all of 2017's pop magic, and thankfully, Volume 64 mopped up all the hits that Volume 63 couldn't include, from the best Maroon 5 song in recent memory – the shamefully enjoyable SZA collaboration "What Lovers Do" – to Childish Gambino's pitch-shifted funk on "Redbone" and the raw power of Kesha's "Praying." And, of course, no survey of 2017 hits could exist without the cultural behemoth that was Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber's "Despacito" remix.

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