The Nolan Sisters / Making Waves [CD]

As a big Nolans fan, I'm well excited at the prospect of this release and I can't wait to get it! This sees two Nolans albums released together, "The Nolan Sisters", (which will be available for the first time on CD) and "Making Waves".

As there are 25 songs featured here, a track-by-track review would go on forever, so I'd thought I'd sum up each album as follows:

"The Nolan Sisters"

The year before this originally came out, the sisters had reached the Top 3 on the UK album chart with an album of covers, "20 Giant Hits", their first album to be given a general release. Titled quite simply "The Nolan Sisters", this then was their second album to be given a general release, but it was their first after signing to mighty Epic Records. The sisters must have been so excited to have secured this contract, as their fellow labelmates now included Abba and Michael Jackson. They must have felt they had now certainly hit the big time!

Released at the end of 1979, this album was their final release as The Nolan Sisters. They had a name change thereafter and all subsequent records were released as The Nolans. This 12 track album featured six covers and six new songs, including their first hit single, the magic "Spirit Body & Soul", their mega hit "I'm In The Mood For Dancing" and also the fantastic "All The King's Horses", with the lovely Linda on lead vocals. I've always wondered why they didn't lift this track as a single as it would definitely have been a big hit but there you go.

The six covers include the Nolans' versions of Cliff Richard's "Miss You Nights" and Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes". I know covers are rarely deemed equal to the originals, but, at the risk of upsetting Cliff and Art Garfunkel fans, I have to say, I think the Nolans' versions of these two are THE definitive versions of both songs.

This release also includes a bonus track, "Harry My Honululu Lover", which musically is very different to everything else on the album, but it's a welcome inclusion as it was the sisters' entry for that year's Song For Europe. They had high hopes of winning and being selected to represent the UK in that year's Eurovision, but they had the honour (if you can call it that!) of losing out to Black Lace!

"Making Waves"

It always frustrates me a little that the only song the media reference to the Nolans is "I'm In The Mood..." I like the song but it's not their best track; they recorded loads of other, much better material and it's showcased here on "Making Waves", which was their third album, released in the autumn of 1980.

This saw the Nolans at the highpoint of their commercial success worldwide. The facts and figures speak for themselves: "Making Waves" reached a respectable number 11 on the UK album charts, achieved Gold Disc status, and spent 33 consecutive weeks in the charts, the longest run of any Nolans release. It yielded four Top 20 singles, "Don't Make Waves" (No 12 in the UK; No 5 in their native Ireland), "Gotta Pull Myself Together" (No 9 in the UK; No 8 in Ireland), "Who's Gonna Rock You" (No 12 in the UK; No 14 in Ireland) and "Attention To Me" (No 9 in the UK; No 5 in Ireland).

The album also did very well in Japan, where it reached Number 1 and sold over half a million copies, no mean achievement in a market which is always difficult for western acts to break into. This album also includes "Sexy Music", with which the sisters won the prestigious Tokyo Music Festival in 1981, and which then went onto become a Top Ten hit in Japan.

This album also went Top 10 in Australia where the single "Gotta Pull Myself Together" reached number 3.

This album remains to this day one of my favourite albums ever. I remember Bernie saying in an interview on Channel 4 a few years ago, in a documentary on girl groups, that she and her sisters had never recorded an album of which she felt proud, but I have to respectfully disagree with her here. "Making Waves" in particular is an album of which they should feel proud, as it really showcases what talented vocalists the sisters are.

Their song writers, Ben Findon, Mike Myers and Steve Puzey, were writing some of their best ever material for the girls and the musical and vocal arrangements on every song on this album are second to none; there's not a duff track here; each one works. So, if you only know the Nolans for "I'm In The Mood..." and fancy seeing what else they did, you won't go far wrong in buying this!

Following on from their success with the covers album 20 Giant Hits PLUS...The Target recordings, which made the top three in the UK album charts, the challenge was to establish a successful pop music career with some hit singles. Pop music at the time was going in a direction that didn't necessarily suit the Nolan sisters, but they nevertheless found a pop-disco sound that gave them the success they were looking for, at least for a while. The two albums paired together here didn't match the success of the covers album in the UK, but proved massively popular in Japan.

The first album, simply titled Nolan Sisters and released in 1979, contains some great hit singles but also a few covers of contemporary pop songs. Perhaps the covers were there to tempt those people who had bought 20 Giant Hits PLUS...The Target recordings, while the original material signalled the new pop-disco direction in which the sisters were taking their music. The first UK single, Spirit body and soul, became a minor UK hit, but the second and last UK single became their biggest ever hit, reaching the top three in the UK and Ireland and topping the Japanese charts when eventually released there in 1980. The cover versions include Miss you nights (Cliff Richard), Thank you for the music (Abba), ;Bright eyes (Art Garfunkel) and I know you'll never love this way again (Dionne Warwick), A bonus track not included on the original album, Harry my Honolulu lover, was originally recorded as a potential Eurovision song but wasn't selected for participation in that contest.

The second album, billing them as The Nolans, consolidated their position in the pop-disco market, features four UK top twenty hits of which two made the top ten, the four being Don't make waves, Gotta pull myself together, Who's gonna rock you and Attention to me. Sexy music, not released as a UK single, became a Japanese top ten hit. The album also includes covers of Touch me in the morning (Diana Ross), Love hit me (Maxine Nightingale) and Get ready (Temptations).

This collection contains most of their hit singles. Two other UK top 20 hits (Chemistry, Don't love me too hard) came from the following album Portrait and these two tracks along with some other tracks from the same album can be found on their hits compilations that also contain tracks from the two albums presented here, but I think this pairing is better than a hits collection overall. It is a fine collection of pop-disco music.

forgotten how many of the nolans songs i used to know. a trip down memory lane for me and this cd has the old and new material on it. if u love the nolans this is a must