B-Side Treasure: "The Way You Do The Things You Do" / "Hallelujah I Love Her So" — The Nolans (1980)
Right. I need to talk about this one because it bothers me. It properly bothers me. And I've had the single since it came out — I think I bought it from the record shop in town, the one that had the yellow bags.
So. The Nolans. Everyone remembers "I'm In The Mood For Dancing." Of course they do. It's a belter. Number three in 1979, sold hundreds of thousands, still gets played at weddings and on those oldies stations where they pretend it's still 1979. And rightly so. It's a brilliant pop record. Theremins and all. The girls in those sparkly dresses on Top of the Pops. It was their moment.
But here's the thing. The follow-up single was "The Way You Do The Things You Do." Smokey Robinson cover. Decent version. Got to number 34, I think. (Let me check — yes, June 1980, charted for seven weeks, peaked at 34. Not great. Not terrible either. It's fine.)
Flip it over. The B-side is "Hallelujah I Love Her So." Another cover — Ray Charles originally, 1956.
And it's brilliant.
I mean, genuinely, properly brilliant. Not "good for a B-side" brilliant. Just brilliant, full stop. The kind of record that makes you stop what you're doing and listen.
The arrangement is simple. Piano-driven. Gospel-tinged but not over the top. And the vocal — this is where it gets me. Anne Nolan singing lead. She had this warmth in her voice that the group's more famous singles never really showed. On "I'm In The Mood For Dancing," everyone's trading lines, it's a party record. On "Hallelujah," she's just singing. Straight. No gimmicks. No "ooh-ooh" backing vocals jammed in every four bars. Just a good singer with a good song.
And she belts it. The second half of the track — when it kicks in properly — she really goes for it. I remember thinking, "Why aren't they releasing this?" I even wrote to Radio 1 — I did. That was the sort of thing you did in 1980. Sent a letter to the road. I don't think they played it. But I tried.
It bothers me because that B-side had more soul in three minutes than half the A-sides on the chart that week. And nobody remembers it. Nobody. You ask someone about the Nolans and they either hum the theremin bit from "Mood For Dancing" or they make a joke about the TV show. They don't know that Anne Nolan could sing Ray Charles and make you believe every word.
The A-side peaked at 34. The B-side didn't chart because B-sides didn't chart separately then, not really, not unless they got radio play. And it didn't get radio play. Because that's not how it worked. The record company pushed the A-side. They always did. "Hallelujah I Love Her So" just sat there in the groove, waiting for someone to drop the needle on the other side.
I still have my copy. You can tell which side I've played more. The label on the B-side is scuffed. The A-side is pristine. That tells you everything.
If you've got Spotify — and I know everyone has — go and find it. The Nolan Sisters — "Hallelujah I Love Her So." Alternatively I think it's on one of the compilations. It's worth your time. It's a lost gem hiding behind a not-quite-hit.
That's the thing about the B-side. Some of them were just filler — the record company needed something on the other side, so the band knocked out a quick cover in the last twenty minutes of the session. But some of them — some of them were better than the A-side. And the wrong one got released.
This one got it wrong.