By Request: NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC! 51

HERC knew it was bound happen sooner or later. Some anonymous yahoo viewer would write in, requesting a K-Tel Scale rundown of the latest volume of Now That's What I Call Music!  As always, HERC is glad to oblige... But first a little housekeeping.  The Cashbox and WLS charts do not exist in 2014 and therefore do not apply.  A few other newer Billboard charts do apply, so HERC added them to the scale. Here are the Top 40 Charts used in calculating the new Now Scale:

• POP = Hot 100
• ROC = the highest ranking achieved on any of these five Rock charts: Hot Rock Songs, Rock Airplay, Rock Digital Songs, Rock Streaming Songs and Mainstream Rock Songs
• COU = the highest position attained on any of these four Country charts: Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, Country Digital Songs and Country Streaming Songs
• RHY = Rhythmic Songs
• CLUB = Dance Club Songs
• AC = HERC is sticking with the original Adult Contemporary chart though there are a few new Adult charts (see below)

Although this isn't the one you explicitly asked for Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, here's how Now 51 scored on the newly created Now Scale.

NOW 51 (2014)		K-tel Scale:				27.15
		Billboard Top 40s
		POP	ROC	COU	RHY	CLUB	AC
Birthday	Katy Perry	17			25	1	29
Problem	Ariana Grande	2			1	12	21
Rude	Magic	1			5		10
Fancy	Iggy Azalea	1			1	1
Classic	MKTO	14					26
Not A Bad Thing	Justin Timberlake	8			4		8
Wild Wild Love	Pitbull	30
Ain't It Fun	Paramore	10	1				11
Really Don't Care	Demi Lovato	26				1
Chandelier	Sia	8				1
Come With Me Now	Kongos	31	1
She Looks So Perfect	5 Seconds Of Summer	24
Me And My Broken Heart	Rixton	14					7
Stay With Me	Sam Smith	2			9	48	1
Let It Go	Idina Menzel	5				1	9
Play It Again	Luke Bryan	14		1

Since Now 39 in the U.S. edition of the Now series, the labels have been tacking on "What's Next", four to six songs "from up and coming artists."  The sad reality is that very few of these songs ever actually chart.  Track 5 on Now 51 - "Classic" by MKTO, a recent Top 20 song - was one of the "What's Next" songs back on Now 47, which came out just over a year ago.  For the purposes of the Now Scale, the "What's Next" songs are left off the playlist.

Currently, Billboard lists the following Adult charts in addition to Adult Contemporary:

• Adult Pop Songs
• Adult Alternative Songs
• Adult R&B Songs

This is the album that was kind of requested, Now 50: "...can you run the latest Now album, Now 50, though the K-Tel Scale and tell us how it fared..."  As asked, HERC did run Now 50 and Now 51 through the K-Tel Scale.  Neither disc fared very well so HERC came up with the Now Scale. (Conversely, running Music Machine, the highest scoring K-Tel album, through the Now Scale also yielded a much lower score.)  

NOW 50 (2014)		K-tel Scale:				29.91
		Billboard Top 40s
		POP	ROC	COU	RHY	CLUB	AC
Happy	Pharrell Williams	1			1	14	1
Dark Horse	Katy Perry	1			1	1	6
The Man	Aloe Blacc	8			10
Hey Brother	Avicii	16				1
Pompeii	Bastille	5	1			1	11
Team	Lorde	6	2		7		13
Talk Dirty	Jason Derulo	3			1	17
Selfie	The Chainsmokers	16			23	8
Turn Down For What	DJ Snake & Lil Jon	4			1
Show Me	Kid Ink	13			1
La La La	Naughty Boy	19				18
Young Girls	Bruno Mars	32			19		17
Adore You	Miley Cyrus	21
All Of Me	John Legend	1			1		1
Let Her Go	Passenger	5	1				1
Best Day Of My Life	American Authors	11	2				2

Unless there is sufficient non-anonymous interest, HERC will not be using the Now Scale in the future.