Big power ballads from Shakespear’s Sister, Wet Wet Wet, Vanessa Williams, Annie Lennox and of course Whitney Houston are hands-down the sound of that year and are just one big nostalgia-fest if this is your era.

NOW Music is proud to present the next instalment of the 'Yearbook' series - and our first to celebrate the '90s, 'NOW - Yearbook 1992'; 43 tracks from a brilliant year in Pop!

Talking of acts who were big in the 1980s, one disappointment with NOW Yearbook ’92 is that it doesn’t include any of the singles issued in from INXS’s Welcome to Wherever You Are, arguably their best album and a record that was a real highlight of 1992 for this author, although presumably that’s down to the usual pesky licensing restrictions. saw Bruce Springsteen release two new albums, ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’ on the same day, and the title track from the former kicks off Disc 2 – followed by massive Rock hits from Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden and ZZ Top’s cover of ‘Viva Las Vegas’. Timeless tracks from Annie Lennox and Richard Marx follow with Bon Jovi’s ‘Keep The Faith’ closing Side One.

Dina Carroll and Cece Peniston enjoyed House crossover hits, and Kylie Minogue, Take That, and Undercover produced Pop floor-fillers. Unfortunately my copy arrived with the plastic seal ripped and the corners of the cardboard CD case scuffed and crushed. Brian May’s ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ begins disc 2, followed by Mike Oldfield’s ‘Sentinel’, plus fantastic covers from Cher (‘Could've Been You’), KISS (‘God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II’), and Manic Street Preachers (‘Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)’). Crowded House have their second appearance on this album with ‘Four Seasons In One Day’ and the disc comes to a close with two beautiful ballads from Belinda Carlisle and Gloria Estefan.

The diversity of genres contributing to the year’s Pop is reflected with tracks from East 17, MC Hammer, Kris Kross, Bananarama, and Roxette – before a closing run, including Go West, Crowded House and Simply Red – who, with ‘Stars’ had the year’s biggest selling album.

This is another great compilation from Now Yearbook but all the Special Edition covers seem to be damaged.Floor-fillers from CeCe Peniston, Dina Carroll, Shanice and En Vogue follow, before 'My Destiny' from Lionel Richie completes the disc. Hawkins and the collaboration between Patty Smyth and Don Henley provided massive radio-friendly soft Rock – and Chris Rea and Elton John each released a timeless and sophisticated ballad, before great vocals from Des’ree, Julia Fordham and Lisa Stansfield sign off the disc.