No cause of death was provided. McCafferty had retired from touring with Nazareth in 2013 due to the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
McCafferty, who was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1946, co-found Nazareth in 1968 with Agnew, as well Manny Charlton on guitar and Darrell Sweet on drums.
The group was inspired to take it’s name by a line in The Band’s classic song The Weight, which references the Pennsylvania town of Nazareth, rather than the Middle Eastern city.
The group’s eponymous debut LP was released in 1971, and the group showed off a muscular hard rock sound, though it often included more pop-oriented covers.
Nazareth elevated its profile in rock circles by touring with Deep Purple, and that band’s bassist Roger Glover later lended some of his group’s style to Nazareth’s third LP Razamanaz from 1973.
Several of the band’s early albums were modest hits in the UK, but they failed to gain much traction in the United States until the release of its sixth album, 1975’s Hair Of The Dog.
The album was buoyed by the single Love Hurts, a reworked version of the Everly Brothers song, which had not been released as a single.
It had been previously covered, but Nazareth’s version, which had a harder edge thanks to Charlton’s guitars and McCafferty’s grainy yet powerful voice, reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US, instantly becoming the group’s most identifiable song.
It has since been used numerous times in film, television and commercials, though it is usually deployed for comedic or ironic effect.
The album did well, reaching number 17 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart thanks to other popular tunes like the title track, which McCafferty co-wrote.
McCafferty’s former bandmate Charlton died in July of this year.
In addition to his albums with Nazareth, McCafferty recorded three solo albums that were released to mostly lackluster results.
In 2014, he spoke to Classic Rock Here And Now about stepping away from the band due to his COPD diagnosis.
‘I can’t sing on tour like I used to anymore,’ he said, via USA Today. ‘I figure if you can’t do the job then you really shouldn’t be there…. I’m sad about it but I just can’t sing a whole set live anymore.’
In the same interview, McCafferty reminisced about the band’s mindset early in its existence.
‘We weren’t trying to be famous or trying to change the world or anything,’ he recalled. ‘We lived in a small town, loved music, and all the guys in the band liked different things. It was the chemistry of everybody that we eventually ended up with.’
McCafferty is survived by his wife Maryann and his two children.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11406305/Dan-McCafferty-lead-vocalist-Scottish-band-Nazareth-sang-hit-single-Love-Hurts-dies-76.html
