Released 1961 Genre Country Label Warner Bros. | Recorded July 1960 Length 2:22 Writer(s) Boudleaux Bryant | |
"Love Hurts" is a song written and composed by the American songwriting duo Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. First recorded by The Everly Brothers in July 1960, the song is also well known from a 1975 international hit version by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth and in the UK by a top five hit in 1975 by the English singer Jim Capaldi.
Contents
- Roy Orbison version
- Jim Capaldi version
- Nazareth version
- In other media
- Triumph version
- Cher version
- Live performances
- References
The song was introduced in December 1960 as an album track on A Date with The Everly Brothers, but was never released as a single (A-side or B-side) by the Everlys. The first hit version of the song was by Roy Orbison, who earned Australian radio play, hitting the Top Five of that country's singles charts in 1961. A recording by Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons was included on Parsons' posthumously released Grievous Angel album. After Parsons' 1973 death, Harris made the song a staple of her repertoire, and has included it in her concert set lists from the 1970s to the present. Harris has since re-recorded the song twice.
The most successful recording of the song was by hard rock band Nazareth, who took the song to the U.S. Top 10 in 1975 and hit number one in Norway and the Netherlands. In the UK the most successful version of the song was by former Traffic member Jim Capaldi, who took it to number four in the charts in November 1975 during an 11-week run. The song was also covered by Cher in 1975 for her album Stars. Cher re-recorded the song in 1991 for her album of the same name. Rod Stewart recorded the song in 2006 for his album Still the Same... Great Rock Classics of Our Time which was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Roy Orbison version
Roy Orbison covered "Love Hurts" in 1961 and issued it as the B-side to "Running Scared". While "Running Scared" was an international hit, the B-side only picked up significant airplay in Australia. Consequently, chart figures for Australia show "Running Scared"/"Love Hurts" as a double A-Side, both sides peaking at No. 5. This makes Orbison's recording of "Love Hurts" the first version to be a hit.
Jim Capaldi version
Jim Capaldi reached number 4 in the UK charts with his interpretation of "Love Hurts" in November 1975, which was to prove his highest charting UK single. Described by Rolling Stone as having "a sense of pain very different from Roy Orbison's." the single also charted in the US, Germany, and Sweden.
Nazareth version
Performed as a power ballad, the Nazareth version was the most popular version of the song and the only rendition of "Love Hurts" to become a hit single in the United States, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1976. Billboard ranked it as the No. 23 song for 1976. As part of the "Hot Tracks (EP)" it also reached No. 15 in the UK in 1977. Nazareth's version was an international hit, peaking at No. 1 in Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa and Norway, and remains the best-known recording of the song. The Nazareth single was so successful in Norway that it charted for 61 weeks on the Norwegian charts (VG-lista Top 10), including 14 weeks at No. 1, making it the top single of all time in that country.
A later recording by Nazareth, featuring the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, peaked at No. 89 in Germany.
The lyrics of the song remained unchanged on all versions up until Nazareth's 1975 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". The Nazareth track has been featured in the movies Dazed and Confused, Detroit Rock City, Together, Click, and Halloween among others. It was edited for use in a late-'90s Gatorade TV commercial. Other companies to have used the song in advertising include Southwest Airlines, Molson, Nissan (for the Altima), Zurich (worldwide 'True Love' advertising), and Toyota in Australia.
Cher used this Nazareth version for her 1991 re-recording of the song for her album of the same name.
In other media
The Nazareth version was sung by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, lead singer of The Dandy Warhols, in "Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang", a second season episode of Veronica Mars. A cover version of the Nazareth version was sung by Nan Vernon for the film Halloween II.
The song was sung similar to the Nazareth version in the "That '70s Musical" episode of That '70s Show.
Triumph version
In 1991, Triumph created and covered their interpretation of "Love Hurts", but the track never surfaced until the release of Livin' for the Weekend: The Anthology in 2005, with a subsequent video single.
Cher version
Cher also recorded the song in 1975 but did not have a hit with it at the time. She recorded a second version in 1991 for the album of the same name. The single became a minor hit in the UK in December 1991.
Live performances
Cher performed the song on the following concert tours: