Manny Charlton

Manuel Charlton (25 July 1941 – 5 July 2022) was a Scottish musician, record producer and founding member of the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth. He was the band's lead guitarist from 1968 to 1990. He also produced Nazareth albums in the 1970s, including Hair of the Dog.

Charlton was born in La Línea on 25 July 1941. His family emigrated from Spain to Scotland and settled in Dunfermline when he was two. Prior to joining Nazareth, he played in a few bands, most notably the Mark 5 and later the Red Hawks, until joining the local semi-pro Dunfermline band The Shadettes. In 1968, the band changed their name to Nazareth, inspired by the opening lyric from "The Weight", a song by The Band.

Charlton's 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. By 1973 they were headlining their own shows. Charlton was also the band's producer for many years, succeeding Deep Purple's Roger Glover, after the band decided they wanted to move in a new direction for the Hair of the Dog album. Hair of the Dog attained platinum sales in the United States and has to date sold in excess of two million copies. It contains their biggest hit "Love Hurts" which reached No. 8 in the United States.

Charlton also produced the self-titled Dan McCafferty debut LP in 1975, with a single "Out of Time" (1975) reaching # 41 in the UK chart. He went on to produce the Nazareth albums up to and including No Mean City (1979).

Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses initially wanted "the guy who produced Nazareth's Hair of the Dog" to produce what would become the band's breakthrough album. 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.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.