Hits 50

Hits 50 is a compilation album released in the United Kingdom in August 2001. It contains 50 tracks spread over two CDs, including nine number-one singles on the UK Singles Chart from Five, DJ Pied Piper and the Masters of Ceremonies, Craig David, Jennifer Lopez, Bob The Builder, Rui Da Silva, LeAnn Rimes, A1, and Westlife.

Hits 50 is the first Hits album since Hits 97 and Hits 99 to feature the word Hits in the name as the only word in the title.

Controversy and background

Despite its success, the album was quite controversial because, in order to have 25 tracks on a single disc, many of the tracks had to be edited significantly, although this is not mentioned on the artwork. Despite this, controversy eventually died down and Hits 51 followed this format for 25 tracks on one disc. The album was released one step ahead of the rival Now That's What I Call Music!'s 50th volume, Now 50.

Hits 50 came about after the previous volume's (Music...Volume 2) was considered somewhat of a commercial failure by BMG, so they decided to rebrand the Hits series to its numbering system (there had not been a Hits album with a volume number suffix since 1991). The album cover is quite similar to the rival Now 50.