I saw in the Guardian earlier in the week that Dan McCafferty lead singer of Nazareth, one of those Scottish groups which found success in the early 1970s, has died – only a few months after the band’s guitarist Manny Charlton passed away.
McCafferty had the perfect voice for a singer of hard rock’n’roll. That voice was shown off to great effect on Love Hurts – see here.
I also noted a couple of the band’s cover versions in this post.
Here’s the band’s second UK hit, a no 10 in 1973 as performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Nazareth: Bad, Bad Boy
William Daniel (Dan) McCafferty: 14/10/1946 – 8/11/2022. So it goes.
I’m spoiled for choice with this one. It was written in 1960 by Boudleaux Bryant and recorded by the Everly Brothers the next year but not as a single. It was an accidental hit for Roy Orbison in Australia when it became part of a double A-side but not a hit in the UK till Nazareth took it into the charts in 1975.
Dan McCafferty’s voice was perfect to bring out the song’s angst.
Tomorrow‘s singer was Keith West, perhaps better known for the hit Excerpt From A Teenage Opera in turn better known as Grocer Jack as those two words repeated formed the beginning of the chorus. Guitarist Steve Howe later achieved greater fame with Yes.
Dunfermline band Nazareth – one of whose members lived round the corner from Son Of The Rock Towers for a while – had a hit with a rocked up version of My White Bicycle in 1975.
