It was conceived as a circulation-booster for the provincial newspapers published by Wyatt, following the success of an insert called 'The Monkees Special', which sold over 100,000 copies and kept the printing works at Banbury busy for over a month.

Under Davidson's successor Colin Bostock-Smith, Top Pops moved to Fleet Street and became fortnightly in November 1967, then weekly in June 1968.

It was unusual for including colour content from its first issue, but found it hard to compete with its rivals, partly because it was initially based in Banbury, not London.

In November Wyatt sold his interest to production manager Doug Collins and former Record Mirror editor Jim Watson, who renamed it plain Music Now as of the 21 March 1970 issue.

For the 11 months of its existence, Music Now carved out a vital niche in the British music press, offering exclusive interviews / photo spreads with stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Family, Elton John, Marc Bolan and Free (almost none of which have been drawn on since) as well as detailed feature coverage of an array of obscure bands (Mighty Baby, The Idle Race, Trees, Orange Bicycle) and a panoply of interesting reviews and adverts.