The Best... Album in the World...Ever! is a compilation album brand from Circa Records (trading under the 'strategic marketing' brand name of EMI Records/Virgin Records). Usually the album's title is made of the main title, genre and maybe issue number (so albums would include The Best Ibiza Album in the World...Ever!, The Best Rock Album in the World...Ever! etc.), however on a number of indie music collections the genre aspect was replaced by a full list of artist names. Due to this, these were just normally listed as The Best Album in the World...Ever!, and featured many Britpop acts, as well as dance acts such as Chemical Brothers.

Although most albums use the Album in the World...Ever! suffix, some towards the late 1990s change the suffix to Anthems...Ever!, with a plural on the theme (example the album The Best Celtic Anthems...Ever!). Some even just use ...Ever! as a suffix (such as The Best TV Ads...Ever!)

Many of the albums in the series were compiled by Ashley Abram.

History

The series started with The Best...Dance Album in the World...Ever! (1993) which was a success, spending four weeks at number one on the UK Compilation Chart and ending up as the third biggest selling compilation of the year. The Dance strand led to a fourteen volume subseries. Other successful subseries included Air Guitar, Sixties, Club Anthems and the aforementioned alternative rock Best...Album in the World Evers.

The Best Club Anthems...Ever!, featuring house, big beat, techno and electronica was released in 1997, and there have been 16 sequels. One difference from The Best Dance Album in the World..Ever! and The Best Club Anthems...Ever series is that Club Anthems originally had its tracks mixed, although this stopped beginning with 2003's Very Best Club Anthems release.

The Best Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever!, referred to in retrospect as Air Guitar I, released 5 November 2001, was compiled by Brian May. A sequel was released in November 2002 and another in November 2003, the latter proclaiming itself to be the last Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever!. Both sequels were again compiled by Brian May. In 2005, a 3CD The Best of the Best Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever! was released. Whilst Air Guitar III proclaimed to be the final volume, the liner notes written by May in The Best of the Best start with "OK, we lied."

Sometimes, the albums have captured a moment of popularity for things other than music, such as The Best TV Ads...Ever!, a compilation released in May 2000 of songs from current and famous TV adverts which was released just days after the "100 Greatest TV Ads" poll from Channel 4 and The Sunday Times aired on the former. Furthermore, many other albums with a similar concept followed from other labels, including Switched On from rival label Telstar, Classic Ads from Universal, Commercial Breaks from Beechwood Music and the similarly titled Commercial Break from Castle Music.

The series was immensely popular, and most of the volumes performed well in the compilation charts, with some even making number one. The series started to become subject to popular culture parodies, such as spoof band Shirehorses titling their first album from 1997 The worst...album in the world...ever...EVER!. Blur, who appeared on some of the albums in the series, were originally going to title their 2000 compilation Blur: The Best of as Best Blur Album in the World Ever.

The series originally featured a globe on each album cover, to represent the world, as referred to in the album titles. When the Anthems...Ever! and the simply ...Ever! titles started to appear in 1997, the globe didn't usually appear on the cover. The globe continued to be featured on in the World...Ever! covers nonetheless, although in 2001–02, it started to become absent from the album covers of in the World...Ever! albums too, as it is absent from the Air Guitar covers and one of the Dance covers.

List of compilations

The Best... Album in the World... Ever!

These albums have the genre of indie/alternative music.

These albums finished in 1998, although the series was picked up again in 2001 under a new name, The Album:.

The brand new The Album: series spawned six more volumes (although a hiatus was present in two of its five active years)

The Best Funk Album in the World...Ever!

This is a double tape or CD compilation of 1970s funk and blaxploitation soundtrack music. The album is a de facto follow up to the EMI/Virgin release Superfunk though it was decided to list the album under the stronger Best..Ever brand name.

The concept of the album is similar to the Harmless collections and to BMG Global TV's Blaxplotation album series.

The Best Christmas Album in the World... Ever!

This is a double CD album of various Christmas music, originally released in 1996. In 2000, a new edition was released, The Best Christmas Album in the World... Ever! (new edition).

The Best...Anthems...Ever!

A 2-CD compilation released in 1997.

The Best Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever!

These were a series of albums compiled by Brian May from Queen that ran from 2001 to 2005. Despite the first volume only entering at #5, it achieved at least Gold status, whilst the second volume received Platinum status.

The Best Scottish Album in the World...Ever!

This album was released 9 June 1997. It is notable for being perhaps the only widely available compilation album that features Wolfstone, who feature with their song "Battle", credited as "The Battle". At the end of the second disc is the Dunblane cover of the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". All royalties from the recording of this song were sent to charities. The previous compilation Hits 97 also sent royalties from the song to charity.

The Best Driving Anthems in the World...Ever!

This is a CD compilation of power ballads. Several editions have been released since the first album, Power Ballads – The Greatest Driving Anthems in the World... Ever!, was released in 2004.

The Best Club Anthems in the World ...Ever!

This is a sub-series in the series which ran from 1997 to 2006.

Here is a list of albums in the series:

1. The Best Club Anthems ...Ever! (1997)
2. The Best Club Anthems 2 ...Ever! (1997)
3. The Best Club Anthems III ...Ever! (1998)
4. The Best Club Anthems 99 ...Ever! (1999)
5. The Best Club Anthems 2000 (1999)
6. The Best Club Anthems ...Ever! 2K (2000)
7. The Best Club Anthems 2001 (2000)
8. The Best Club Anthems 2002 (2002)
9. The Best Club Anthems Summer 2002 (2002)
10. The Best Club Anthems 2003 (2002)
11. The Very Best Club Anthems ...Ever! (2003)
12. The Best Club Anthems 2004 (2004)
13. The Best Club Anthems 2005 (2005)
14. The Best Club Anthems 05 (2005)
15. The Best Club Anthems Classics (2005)
16. The Best Club Anthems 2006 (2006)
17. The Best Club Anthems 80s Anthems (2006)

• Every album from the first volume to The Best Club Anthems 2003 was digitally mixed. Starting with The Very Best Club Anthems ...Ever!, The songs were unmixed.
• The same album also started another tradition which was slightly different packaging. Previous volumes featured a border on the cover with small circles in each corner, although this new tradition was short, and the border re-appeared for the last three albums in the series, starting with The Best Club Anthems Classics.
• The series was very successful. It offered a third alternative to the Now Dance series, with the other alternative being The Best Dance Album series.

See also

• The Worst...Album in the World...Ever...EVER! (Album by Shirehorses)
• Best Blur Album in the World Ever (Working title for the Blur album Blur: The Best of)
• Now That's What I Call Music! (Another long-running series of compilations by Virgin Records, EMI and Ashley Abram)