“Love Hurts” is a song written and composed by the American songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, who was a very prolific and successful songwriter for other artists throughout the 1950s and beyond. Love Hurts was first recorded by the Everly Brothers in July 1960, and was covered by many, many artists before it truly got international fame when Nazareth – a rock band hailing from Dunfermline, Scotland – recorded their version of it in 1974.
The Everly Brothers may have been the first to cover it, but as they never released the song as a single, it was Roy Orbison who first had a hit with it when he took it to the Top 5 of the Australian charts in 1961. A recording of the song by Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons is also notable, not the least in being the version that inspired Nazareth to do theirs.
Post-Nazareth covers include Jennifer Warnes, Jim Capaldi, Cher, Joan Jett, Rod Stewart and many others.
The Nazareth version is without question the most popular version of the song. The group had three UK hits under their belts when they released Love Hurts late in 1974.
Surprisingly, it tanked, but in April 1975 it became a hit in South Africa, prompting their label, A&M, to release it in America. It took a while, but radio stations in Texas started playing the song, and others around the country gradually followed suit.
It reached its peak position of #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1976, making Nazareth’s rendition of the song the first and only US hit single of this song.
The track was largely a huge hit in most other markets as well, frequently hitting the top ten (or close to it). It made it all the way to #1 in Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, and Norway.
The Norwegian success was particularly spectacular, as it charted for 61 weeks on the official chart, including 14 weeks at #1. What makes that especially impressive is that the singles chart only had ten slots during those years – in other words, it was constantly in the top 10 for all of those 61 weeks! When a list of the most successful singles of all time in Norway was compiled in 2014, it wasn’t a big surprise to see that song coming out on top. We certainly could have done so much worse – #2 was Donkeyboy!
The single even made it full circle back to the UK, finally making the chart in 1977 where it peaked at #77. This may have been lower than elsewhere, but for an old track that had already been released as a single there three years prior, that is probably still above expectations.
Knowing how well Love Hurts did, it is perhaps surprising to learn that it was never meant to go out as a single. It was not even meant to be an album track. The song was attempted during a session where they recorded b-sides for the coming singles from their new album. Without the pressure of needing to come up with a hit or solid album track, unusual things can happen – perhaps even covers of old country-folk tracks?
In an interview with classicbands.com, bassist Pete Aginew reveals that the band had always intended to record the track: “We all loved the song. We often covered songs that we liked that we used to listen to on tape. Every now and then, we’d just go back and try to do something with one of these things. If you could change it and make it yours, we’d do it in the studio and see if we could do something about it. When we did Love Hurts, I believe there were 42 different versions recorded of it. The one we used to listen to was Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, off the “Grievous Angel” [1974] album. We used to have that in our van and we loved the song. […] We recorded “Love Hurts” as a b-side and that’s how we saw it. Of course, when I hear it now, it’s probably one of the best rock ballads of all time and definitely the vocal is in the top three.”
The way to make the track their own was to remove it from its country roots and perform it as a slow-burning power ballad. Also, instead of the more wistful vocals found of most versions up till then, Nazareth’s version would have a much more emotional vocal delivery, masterfully delivered by lead vocalist Dan McCafferty.
More than any other version of the song, you truly believe that this singer is hurting. In actual fact, he might have been, albeit physically rather than emotionally. If you take note of the key of the song, it is set much higher than McCafferty’s normal range. He really had to strain to reach the highest notes.
Pete Aginew: ”There’s a story behind that. Dan and I went to this wedding. We were recording down in England and we came up to Scotland to a wedding of a friend of ours. We left the drummer and the guitar player in the studio. They decided they would start the backing tracks of Love Hurts.”
“When we came down the next day, they had recorded it in exactly the same key as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. Of course they sung it in a very low octave – far too low. Dan had no choice but to take it up an octave, and that’s how it ended up being sung in that high key. If we had been in the studio when they did that, it probably would never have been a hit because we would have never have done it in that key!”
The lyrics of the song remained unchanged on all versions up until Nazareth’s recording, where the original line “love is like a stove/it burns you when it’s hot” was changed to “love is like a flame/it burns you when it’s hot.” Perhaps the stove was deemed too domestic and old-fashioned for young teenage heartbreaks of 1975.
I’m young, I know, but even so
I know a thing or two
I learned from you
I really learned a lot, really learned a lot
Love is like a flame
It burns you when it’s hot
Love hurts…… ooh, ooh love hurts
The track may have been intended as a single B-side, but when they heard how powerful it was, it ended up as an A-side. That’s how it was released in all territories – as a standalone, lead single track.
When the single took off in America, the record company saw the track as a chance to give the planned Hair of the Dog album a boost and opted to include it in place of Guilty (a Randy Newman track). The only studio album that features Nazareth’s version of Love Hurts is thus the US edition of Hair of the Dog. It’s a different (longer) version, too – that album version clocks in at 3:52, featuring a guitar solo by Manny Charlton that is not included on the 3:03 single.
Aginew remembers the moment they presented the new batch of songs to their American label: “When we brought the album over to Jerry Moss at A&M records, he said ‘I’d like to take Guilty off that album and put Love Hurts on.’ Thank God for Jerry Moss! That was the one that broke it in America for us. Albums like Razamanaz, Loud And Proud and Rampant eventually became big after Hair of the Dog got big in America, when people went back to look at these albums. That’s when it happened for us in the States.”
Sadly, Nazareth would not go on to enjoy further singles success in America. Holiday reached #87 in 1980, and Love Leads To Madness went to #105 in 1982. None of their other songs charted there, but thanks to “that” song they had at least found an audience and did decent business with their albums and tours.
Even though the band didn’t write Love Hurts themselves, there’s no doubt it has opened many doors for them and made them reach many more people than they otherwise would. It continues to be played on radio, and is frequently used on TV shows and in movies. Guitarist Manny Charlton has no regrets about doing it, but adds: “Do I wish I had written it? Every friggin’ day! (laughs) Get the girl and the boys will follow! Especially if the lead song on the album is a Son of a Bitch… oops, I mean Hair of the Dog!”
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