The band released their debut album Nazareth in 1971, but it was not until their third album Razamanaz (produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple) that the band began to receive recognition, with two U.K. hits, “Broken Down Angel”, and “Bad Bad Boy”. Following this came the album,
Loud N Proud (1973) which contained a cover of a song by folksinger Joni Mitchell “This Flight Tonight.” Nazareth’s fifth album was Rampant (1974) with the single “Shanghai’ed in Shanghai”. The website for Nazareth (often referred to as “Naz” by the band themselves) states this: “Musically, 1974’s Rampant was a move towards metal and it was also the last of three albums produced by Deep Purple’s Roger Glover before Naz’ Manny Charlton took over.” (http://www.nazarethdirect.co.uk). In 1975, Nazareth catapulted to international stardom with the release of Hair of the Dog with monster hits “Love Hurts” and “Hair of the Dog”. The Nazareth website states that their label “Mooncrest” “still badly wanted another hit so Naz recorded the Everly Brothers’ hit “Love Hurts.” This went nowhere in England but was Top 10 in America, and then in Norway, it reached #1 and stayed there for 40 weeks.” The Wikipedia reference described this as “60 weeks” on the Norweigen/European charts! You can decide which is correct! Also according to Wikipedia, a second guitarist Zal Cleminson was added in 1979 for Nazareth’s album No Mean City and Malice in Wonderland. Wiki also said that in 1981 Nazareth contributed the song “Crazy (Suitable for Treatment)” to the soundtrack for the film Heavy Metal. Nazareth continued to tour and record in the 80s and 90s as their popularity began to wane, although they remained popular in Europe, particularly Germany.
The most recent updates on the band come from their website http://www.nazarethdirect.co.uk: “2004 saw the band head out to the USA, Russia, Israel and Europe with a welcome return to the UK.” and “2008 marks the 40th anniversary (of the original band’s formation in 1968)”
Nazareth’s newest album, just released, is called Big Dogz, released for 2012.
Great band – I saw them in Chatham sometime around 1974 – thanks for this post
Thank you, Peter, it is a privilege to have subscribers like you to the blog.