Nazareth - Love Hurts (1976)

Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band formed in Dunfermline in 1968 that had several hits in the United Kingdom, as well as in several other Western European countries in the early 1970s. They established an international audience with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog, which featured their hits “Hair of the Dog“ and a cover of the ballad “Love Hurts“. The band continues to record and tour. Nazareth formed in December 1968 in Dunfermline, 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 and The Rolling Stones. Nazareth took their name from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, which is cited in the first line of The Band’s classic song “The Weight“ (“I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead...“). The band moved to London, England in 1970 and released their eponymous debut album in 1971. After getting some attention with their second album Exercises, released in 1972, Nazareth supported Deep Purple on tour, and issued the Roger Glover-produced Razamanaz, 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 single with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s song “This Flight Tonight“. Then came another album Rampant, in 1974, that was equally successful although its only single, “Shanghai’d in Shanghai“, narrowly missed the British Top 40. A non-album song, again a cover version, this time of Tomorrow’s “My White Bicycle“, was a UK Top 20 entry in 1975