Various – Now That's What I Call Music 8

Now 8 was released in November 1986

Record 1 Side 1

1. Duran Duran - Notorious: Great song.
2. Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia: Another great song from PSB.
3. Run D.M.C. - Walk This Way: Great collaboration with Aerosmith.
4. The Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way: Great cover of Thelma Houston.
5. Swing Out Sister - Breakout: Great song from SOS.
6. Steve Winwood - Higher Love: Great track.
7. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - (Forever) Live and Die:
8. Genesis - In Too Deep: Mellow track from Phil and co.

Record 1 Side 2

1. Cameo - Word Up!: Great funk-inspired track.
2. Grace Jones - I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect For You): Great song.
3. Mel & Kim - Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend): Great house track.
4. Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off: The title is shortened on the original cover; another great track.
5. Jaki Graham - Step Right Up: Great synth riff.
6. Janet Jackson - What Have You Done For Me Lately: Great song, but should have been on Now 7 as it was a hit in April/May.
7. Human League - Human: Great synth track.
8. Boris Gardiner - I Want to Wake Up With You: Great reggae track.

Record 2 Side 1

1. Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush - Don't Give Up: Great duet.
2. The Housemartins - Think For a Minute: Great follow up to 'Happy Hour'.
3. Madness - (Waiting for) the Ghost Train: Another great song from Suggs and co.
4. Status Quo - In the Army Now: Another great song from Quo.
5. Huey Lewis and the News - Stuck With You: Great song, catchy chorus.
6. Big Country - One Great Thing: The guitar riff.
7. Billy Bragg - Greetings to the New Brunette: Great song.
8. Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died in Your Arms: Another great chorus.

Record 2 Side 2

1. Kim Wilde - You Keep Me Hangin' On: Great cover of the Supremes.
2. It Bites - Calling All the Heroes: Another great track.
3. Doctor & the Medics with Roy Wood - Waterloo: Hilariously wacky cover of ABBA.
4. Debbie Harry - French Kissin' in the U.S.A.: Great solo single from Blondie singer.
5. Robert Palmer - I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Great song.
6. Paul Hardcastle - The Wizard: The theme for Top of the Pops at the time. Great synth track.
7. Gwen Guthrie - (They Long to Be Close to You): Great cover of the Carpenters.
8. Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins: Pretty song from EastEnders.

Another great album, though once again there are some tracks missed out:

Berlin - Take My Breath Away: Appears on Now 9, but could have made Now 8.
Eurythmics - Thorn In My Side:
Madonna - True Blue
Anita Dobson - Anyone Can Fall In Love
Iron Maiden - Wasted Years
Sinitta - So Macho
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Rage Hard
Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
Peter Cetera - Glory of Love
Lionel Richie - Dancing on the Ceiling
Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
Status Quo - Red Sky
Doctor and the Medics - Burn
Gwen Guthrie - Ain't Nothing Going On But the Rent
Five Star - Rain or Shine
A-Ha - I've Been Losing You
Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk - Love Can't Turn Around

My release is not even here it’s cassettes are cream/white black print

A much improved performance here.
Just four differences between this and the original double LP.

Genesis – In Too Deep (Album version used instead of 7″ mix which was on Now 8 LP and CD)
Grace Jones – I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You) (Album version used instead of 7″ mix which was on Now 8 LP and CD)
Janet Jackson – What Have You Done For Me Lately? (LP Edit from Design Of Decade used instead of 7″ mix which was on Now 8 LP)
Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush – Don’t Give Up (Shaking The Tree 5:57 version instead of the 5:41 7″ mix that was on Now 8 LP and CD)

If you own the original Now 8 CD and get the West German compilation CD Musikladen Eurotops - https://discogs.desbloquearpagina.com/Various-Musikladen-Eurotops/release/1648664 - for the 7″ mix of the Janet Jackson track, then you can fully re-create the original double LP.

Official conformation of NOW 8 Double CD on the NOW Twitter feed- all tracks present, though perhaps not the correct mixes, Lot's of additional text added - "Single Mix" "Single Version" "Feat. Aerosmith" "Remastered Version 2019" etc, etc. "32 Top Chart Hits" is lower down & "Plus Many More" is right after Kim Wilde" rather than below the artists names. The font is bugging me - it's not quite "right".

An ebay listing showing a March 26 release date has popped up- track listing is as the original LP & Cassette, unless the seller is guessing?

Simply put this feels like the longest record ever made

This was the first Now compilation commercially released on CD (Now 4 had been released but not commercially distributed)
For Now 8 and Now 9 only single CDs were released with a reduced number of tracks, from Now 10 onwards the CD releases were expanded to 2 discs