Manny Charlton (80) – Nazareth – was born on July 25, 1941 in La Linea, Cadiz, Spain, near the English territory of Gibraltar. The family moved back to Dunfermline, Scotland when he was 2 years old and Charlton grew up in drab, conservative 1950s Britain, finding his escape in playing the guitar and listening to the sound of American rock’n’roll.
Prior to forming Nazareth, he played in a few bands, most notably the Mark 5 and later the Red Hawks. He was 27 before he teamed up with singer Dan McCafferty, bass guitarist Pete Agnew and drummer Darrell Sweet in a band known as the Shadettes, playing covers of bubblegum pop hits in the local ballrooms while dressed in matching yellow suits.
“I knew Pete [Agnew] and Dan [McCafferty] because we were both playing in the Kinema Ballroom with the resident band.
“They played on one stage and we played on the other.”We used to walk up the road after the gigs with our fish suppers; we always spoke about trying to do something together one day. They had a pretty good guitarist who left to go to university.”
“They asked me to take his place, and I said sure, but only if we do originals.”“I joined just as the so-called progressive music wave was starting to take over and at the time was listening avidly to John Peel’s radio show,” Charlton recalled. His arrival heralded a change of both musical direction and image, as the band “told the Brylcreamed Locarno ballroom brigade to stuff it”, grew their hair and replaced the suits with denim and loon pants.
With a new name (Nazareth) taken from the opening line from the Band’s The Weight and with financial backing from Bill Fehilly, a Scottish bingo-hall owner who became their manager, Nazareth moved to London in 1971 in search of a recording contract.
Charlton played a huge part in Nazareth’s worldwide success. His bluesy style of playing, combined with Dan McCafferty’s vocals, first came to the attention of wider rock audiences when Nazareth toured in 1971 as the opening act for Deep Purple, but by 1973 they were headlining their own shows.
Charlton wrote some of Nazareth’s most successful songs such as “Hair Of the Dog”. A re-write of the Everly Brothers “Love Hurts,” is the song he was most proud of, according to fellow band member Pete Agnew.
Manny Charlton explained the story on how he committed Nazareth’s Love Hurts to tape:
“What had happened was Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew were away at a wedding and Darrell Sweet and I were in the studio, twiddling our fingers. And I think Darrell had said “what do you want to do” to which I replied “let’s try doing a version of Love Hurts.”
“So I laid down all the guitar parts and Darrell put down the drum track and when Pete and Dan came back the next day and asked what we had been up to we said
“well, we did a wee version of Love Hurts.”
And I remember them saying “Love Hurts? Well, okay; what key is it in?”
“When I said “it’s in G” Pete immediately went “G! Holy shit…” [laughter].
“But Dan, trooper that he was, just said “no problem, I’ll do it” but there are some really high notes in there, especially in the bridge and the “they’re not fooling me” line. That line was just too much of a stretch for Dan so I slowed the tape down by the littlest of touches so he could hit the notes and he just made it.
“But we got it down, we finished it off and it became a classic.”
Deep Purple, whose bassist, Roger Glover, would produce several early Nazareth albums. But Charlton took the helm for “Hair of the Dog” and remained in that role until 1983. Hair of the Dog attained platinum sales in the United States and has to date sold in excess of two million copies. It is the band’s most well known album, and contains their biggest hit “Love Hurts” which reached No. 8 in the United States. Nazareth toured and recorded heavily throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, releasing some 17 studio albums during his tenure.
In 1986, Manny was brought in to produce GUNS N’ ROSES’ debut album, “Appetite For Destruction”. Charlton ended up helming GN’R’s 1986 Sound City demos that eventually received an official release on the 2018 “Appetite For Destruction” box set.
Charlton got the request from Geffen Records and produced several recordings at Sound City Studios (Los Angeles) in June 1986. At the end of the session they had 25 songs on tape, including “Paradise City”, “Rocket Queen”, “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Nightrain”, two versions of “Move to the City”, “November Rain”, “Shadow of your Love” (takes one and two), and “Reckless Life”. After this initial work, he rejoined Nazareth in Europe, and Guns N’ Roses hired Mike Clink to produce the album. Charlton’s productions are included as bonuses on the 2018 reissue of Appetite for Destruction.
As Manny reminisced: “Axl Rose’s favorite singer is NAZARETH frontman Dan McCafferty. He said to his label, ‘Get me the guy who produced ‘Hair Of The Dog’ by NAZARETH.’ What Axl wants, Axl gets.
“We left it saying, ‘If we could get our respective schedules together, then great,'” he continued. “I was in the middle of recording ‘Cinema’ with NAZARETH and it didn’t happen.”
Nazareth’s albums were a favorite among rock stations. Close Enough for Rock ‘n’ Roll, from 1976, and 1980’s Malice in Wonderland both made the Top 50. Charlton played on 17 albums by Nazareth before leaving the band in 1990 and launching a solo career.
After leaving Nazareth, Charlton played some solo shows on the Scottish club circuit, and released his first solo album Drool in 1997, on the Red Steel record label with Neil Miller on vocals. The following year, he married his second wife and relocated to Texas, where he formed the Manny Charlton Band (MCB). The new band released a pair of albums – Stonkin and Klone This – before disbanding in 2003.
In 1995, Charlton sent to id Software, creator of Doom, a cassette tape featuring an untitled song that John Romero would later title “Blood on the Walls”. The liner said, “For all the guys and gals at I.D. (sic) who came up with the coolest game this side of hell, kick some demon butt to this!!”
Charlton is famous for the guitar riffs that catapulted NAZARETH to stardom during the 1970s. He played on, produced and wrote most of their greatest hits, including “Broken Down Angel”, “Bad Bad Boy”, “Hair Of The Dog” and countless others, not to mention producing the prototype rock ballad “Love Hurts”, which was a Top 10 hit around the world in 1975 and stayed an unprecedented 60 weeks in the Norwegian chart.
Charlton released several high-quality albums since leaving NAZARETH in 1990, including “Hellacious” from 2014, which features an all-star lineup of classic rock legends, including Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Beck, Bogart & Appice),drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. (Santana, Traffic, Steve Winwood, Lindsey Buckingham),Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard),Robert Sarzo, Steven Adler (GUNS N’ ROSES) and a talented New York-based singer, Robyn DeLarenzo.
In 2004, Charlton released Say The Word on the Scottish label River Records. 2005 saw the release of Sharp, which is on the whole a covers album, including Tim Hardin’s “Hang On To A Dream” and Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm”. Later that same year, Charlton completed the follow-up to Sharp, titled Sharp Re-Loaded.
In early 2006, Charlton joined the Swedish rock band From Behind, who released their debut album titled Game Over, and toured in support of the album around Europe before disbanding in late 2007. The lead singer of the band was Nicky Moore, former member of Samson. Charlton then released a solo album Americana Deluxe, covering songs such as Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”.
In a 2012 interview, Charlton stated about “Hair Of The Dog”:
“What that album did was set the band up for American success forever. Looking back, I’m still trying to understand why it was so successful. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all about the attitude of the songs, performances and the rawness of the production. This was the first album that I produced for the band. Beginner’s luck, you might say.”
In March 2013, Charlton released Hellacious co-produced by Gary Bryant (GB Records). This recording was made in California and featured Tim Bogert, Walfredo Reyes, Jr., Steven Adler, Vivian Campbell, and Robin DeLorenzo.
In 2014, Charlton’s solo albums Sharp and Sharp Re-Loaded were issued as a double CD. Neil Jefferies of Classic Rock commended Charlton’s production work, writing: “Among three Dylan songs tackled, ‘All Along The Watchtower’ is simply stunning, sidestepping both the original and Hendrix’s seminal version with quasi-reggae tones that cement Charlton’s reputation as a truly gifted arranger.” In 2018, Atom Records released Créme De La Créme, an album celebrating the ‘Best Of’ Charlton’s solo career.
Manny Charlton relocated to Córdoba (Spain) in 2015. While on a family visit to Texas. he died of heart failure at the age of 80 on July 5, 2022,
Tributes: NAZARETH’s PETE AGNEW Pays Tribute To MANNY CHARLTON: ‘His Contribution As A Musician Was Immeasurable’
• A tribute of Love and Admiration
