Nazareth are a Scottish
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...
band formed in
Dunfermline
Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries.
The earliest ...
in 1968 that had many hit singles and albums in Canada, the United Kingdom, and a number of other European countries beginning in the early 1970s. The breadth of their popularity expanded internationally, including in the United States, with their 1975 album ''
Hair of the Dog'', which featured their hits "
Hair of the Dog" and a cover of the ballad "
Love Hurts
"Love Hurts" is a song written and composed by the American songwriter Boudleaux Bryant. First recorded by the Everly Brothers in July 1960, the song is most well known in two hit versions by UK artists: by Scottish hard rock band Nazareth in ...
".
They have continued to record and tour internationally for more than 50 years.
Career

Nazareth formed in December 1968 in
Dunfermline
Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries.
The earliest ...
, Scotland, from the remaining members of semi-professional local group the Shadettes (formed in 1961) by vocalist
Dan McCafferty, guitarist
Manny Charlton, bassist Pete Agnew, and drummer Darrell Sweet.
They were inspired by
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
and
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
. Nazareth took their name from
Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Nazareth is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough's population was 6,053 at the 2020 census. Nazareth is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 a ...
, which is cited in the first line of
the Band
The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
's classic song "
The Weight
"The Weight" is a song by the Canadian-American group the Band that was released as a single in 1968 and on the group's debut album '' Music from Big Pink''. It was their first release under this name, after their previous releases as Canadian ...
" ("I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead...").
The band moved to London, England in 1970 and released their
self titled
An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
debut album in 1971.
After getting some attention with their second album ''
Exercises,'' released in 1972, Nazareth supported
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
on
tour, and issued the
Roger Glover
Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Roll ...
-produced ''
Razamanaz
''Razamanaz'' is the third studio album by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released in May 1973. It was the band's first LP record to break the charts and was produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple, who the band was on tour with at the t ...
'', in early 1973.
This collection spawned two UK
Top Ten hits, "
Broken Down Angel" and "Bad Bad Boy".
This was followed by ''
Loud 'N' Proud'' in late 1973, which contained another hit with a
cover of
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
's song "
This Flight Tonight".
Then came another album ''
Rampant
In heraldry, the term attitude describes the ''position'' in which a figure (animal or human) is emblazoned as a Charge (heraldry), charge, a Supporter (heraldry), supporter, or as a Crest (heraldry), crest. The attitude of a heraldic figure alwa ...
,'' in 1974, that was equally successful although its only single, "Shanghai'd in Shanghai", narrowly missed the British Top 40.
The non-album cover of
Tomorrow's "
My White Bicycle
"My White Bicycle" is a song written by Keith West and Ken Burgess. It was Tomorrow's debut single.
Background and recording
According to Tomorrow drummer John 'Twink' Alder, the song was inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist group in A ...
" ( a song inspired by
Dutch Provos, an
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
group in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
) was a UK Top 20 entry in 1975.
''
Hair of the Dog'', released in April 1975, was produced by Manny Charlton, ending Roger Glover's association with the band.
The title track – popularly, though incorrectly, known as "Son of a Bitch" due to its hook
lyric
Lyric may refer to:
* Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song
* Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view
* Lyric, from t ...
– became a staple of 1970s rock radio. The American version of the album included a song originally recorded by
the Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close-harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, ...
: the melodic
Boudleaux Bryant
Felice Bryant (born Matilda Genevieve Scaduto; August 7, 1925 – April 22, 2003) and Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant (; February 13, 1920 – June 25, 1987) were an American husband-and-wife country music and pop songwriting team. They were be ...
-penned ballad "
Love Hurts
"Love Hurts" is a song written and composed by the American songwriter Boudleaux Bryant. First recorded by the Everly Brothers in July 1960, the song is most well known in two hit versions by UK artists: by Scottish hard rock band Nazareth in ...
". This became a hit in the UK and in the US, where it went
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...
. The track became the band's only US
Top Ten hit
and was also a top 10 hit in nine other countries, reaching number 1 in six of them. The song was on the Norwegian
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
for 60 weeks.
In 1979, second guitarist
Zal Cleminson
Alistair Macdonald "Zal" Cleminson (born 4 May 1949) is a Scottish guitarist, best known for his role in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band between 1972 and 1978. He was subsequently a member of Nazareth for three years. In 2017, Cleminson put t ...
(previously of
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1972. Fronted by Alex Harvey accompanied by Zal Cleminson on guitar, bassist Chris Glen, keyboard player Hugh McKenna (28 November 1949 – 18 December 2019) an ...
) was added to the line-up, remaining for two albums, ''
No Mean City'' and ''
Malice in Wonderland'', and contributing numerous compositions.
''Malice in Wonderland'' contained the single "
Holiday
A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...
".
In 1981, they contributed the song "Crazy (A Suitable Case for Treatment)" to the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
to the film, ''
Heavy Metal''.
Various Nazareth line-ups continued to make studio albums and tour throughout the 1980s and 1990s, although their popularity had declined such that some albums no longer received either a UK or a US release. They remained popular in Europe, particularly Germany, where "
Dream On" became a
hit single
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...
. In 1991,
Billy Rankin returned to replace Manny Charlton on the ''
No Jive'' album, remaining with the band until 1994.
A tribute came in 1993 when
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...
covered Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" on ''
"The Spaghetti Incident?"
''"The Spaghetti Incident?"'' is the fifth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album is composed of covers of older songs mostly in the punk rock and hard rock genres. ''"The Spaghetti Incident?"'' is the only stud ...
''; consolation after they turned down
Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose ( ; born William Bruce Rose Jr., February 6, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in ...
's request for the group to play at his wedding.
"Axl really made me more aware of Nazareth…" recalled GNR guitarist
Slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash th ...
, "because he can sing like that McCafferty guy, and really dug his voice. And so I remember listening to Nazareth a lot at one point."
Rankin departed again in 1994, but with Jimmy Murrison and keyboard player Ronnie Leahy, Nazareth maintained a live following in Europe and the US.
Nazareth continued touring after Rankin's departure, with Jimmy Murrison and keyboard player Ronnie Leahy.
While on tour in 1999, original drummer Darrell Sweet died at age 51 of a heart attack. He was replaced by bassist Pete Agnew's son Lee for later editions of the band.
On 4 August 2006,
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
, the former keyboardist of the band, died from cancer at the age of 62.
In February 2008, ''
The Newz'' was released on the
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
-based label, Edel Entertainment. The release of the album coincided with Nazareth's fortieth anniversary tour, which started on 25 January in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and visited most of Europe, finished on 4 November 2008 in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. A follow-up album, ''
Big Dogz'', was released on 15 April 2011.

Nazareth announced McCafferty's retirement from the band due to ill health on 28 August 2013, leaving Pete Agnew as the last remaining original member of the band. On 22 February 2014, it was announced that Scottish singer Linton Osborne was chosen as McCafferty's replacement, with the former singer's blessing.
In December 2014, Nazareth announced the cancellation of several shows, and later postponement of their UK tour, due to Osborne contracting a virus that left him unable to perform. In a post on his Facebook page 16 January 2015, Osborne announced his departure from the band.
On 13 February 2015, the band announced that Carl Sentance, formerly of
Persian Risk
Persian Risk are a Welsh heavy metal band from the new wave of British heavy metal era formed in 1979 and hailing from Cardiff, Wales. The brainchild of ex-Stoned Soul Party guitarist Phil Campbell, he recruited vocalist Jon Deverill, second ...
,
Geezer Butler Band, and
Krokus, was their new lead vocalist.
In October 2018, the album ''Tattooed on My Brain'', was released via Frontiers Records. 'The 50th Anniversary Tour' followed, spanning 2018 and 2019, along with German hard rock band
Formosa
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...
as support. Original guitarist Manny Charlton died on 5 July 2022, aged 80.
On 8 November 2022, Dan McCafferty died at the age of 76,
thus leaving bassist Pete Agnew as the last surviving original member.
Members
Current members
Former members
Timeline
Lineups
Discography
See also
*
Music of Scotland
Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, often known as Scottish folk music, which remained vibrant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. Traditiona ...
*
List of Scottish musicians
This list of notable Scottish musicians is part of the List of Scots series.
0–9
* 18 Wheeler, band
* 1990s, indie rock band
A
* John Abell, countertenor, composer and lutenist
* Aberfeldy, pop band
* AC Acoustics
* Maggie Adamson
* Stuar ...
*
List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States
A one-hit wonder is a musical artist who is successful with one hit song, but without a comparable subsequent hit. The term may also be applied to an artist who is remembered for only one hit despite other successes. This article contains artist ...
*
List of performers on Top of the Pops
__NOTOC__
This list of performers on ''Top of the Pops'' includes popular music recording artists and musical ensembles who have performed on ''Top of the Pops'', a weekly BBC television programme that featured artists from the UK Singles ...
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Scottish hard rock musical groups
Scottish heavy metal musical groups
Scottish blues rock musical groups
Musical groups established in 1968
Articles which contain graphical timelines
British hard rock musical groups
British blues rock musical groups
Eagle Records artists
1968 establishments in Scotland