Hair Of The Dog
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Album Summary
Hair of the Dog was tracked in 1974 at Escape Studios in London and released in February 1975 through Mooncrest Records in the UK and A&M Records in the United States. Produced by Manny Charlton alongside the band themselves, this record captured Nazareth — the hard-driving Scottish outfit fronted by the incomparable Dan McCafferty — at an absolute peak of fire and focus. What came out of those sessions was something special, a collection that married bone-crushing riffs with genuine bluesy soul, the kind of album that felt like it was built for the open road and the late-night airwaves. Charlton's production gave the whole thing a raw, muscular polish that let every growl and guitar chord breathe with life.
Reception
- The album broke Nazareth wide open in the American market, climbing to number 17 on the Billboard 200 and announcing to the United States that this Scottish band was absolutely the real deal.
- The title track and the band's deeply felt cover of 'Love Hurts' became staples of rock radio, with 'Love Hurts' in particular crossing over and charting strongly across multiple countries, proving Nazareth could move hearts just as hard as they moved heads.
- Critical reception among hard rock audiences was strong and enthusiastic, with particular praise landing on McCafferty's raw, gravel-and-honey vocals and the band's locked-in, powerful ensemble playing.
Significance
- Hair of the Dog stands as a genuine landmark of mid-1970s hard rock and proto-metal — the title track's immortal riff and its now-legendary lyrical declaration carved out a permanent place in the rock and roll canon that has never faded.
- The album demonstrated that Nazareth possessed a rare and powerful duality, capable of delivering both skull-rattling heaviness and aching emotional depth within the same record, a balance that helped shape the blueprint for arena rock through the late 1970s and beyond.
- The cultural footprint of this album has stretched far beyond its original release, with the title track in particular crossing genre lines and generations, cementing Hair of the Dog as one of the defining hard rock statements of its era.
Samples
- Hair Of The Dog — one of the most recognizable riffs in hard rock, widely sampled and interpolated across hip-hop and popular culture over multiple decades.
Tracklist
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A1 Hair Of The Dog 128
4:10
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A2 Miss Misery 145
4:41
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A3 Love Hurts 81
3:52
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A4 Changin' Times 172
6:03
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B1 Beggars Day —
3:45
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B2 Rose In The Heather 137
2:45
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B3 Whiskey Drinkin' Woman —
5:30
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B4 Please Don't Judas Me 124
9:50
Artist Details
Nazareth is a hard rock band that came together in Dunfermline, Scotland back in 1968, blending raw blues-influenced grit with heavy rock muscle to carve out a sound that hit like a freight train wrapped in velvet — nobody was doing it quite like them. They broke through internationally with their soulful, gut-punching cover of "Love Hurts" in 1975, turning a classic Everly Brothers tune into a hard rock anthem that climbed charts on both sides of the Atlantic and introduced the world to vocalist Dan McCafferty's gloriously ragged, whiskey-soaked voice. Nazareth stands as one of the unsung pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, a band whose influence quietly rippled through decades of rock music even as the spotlight too often shone elsewhere.
