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William "Billy" Rankin (born 25 April 1959, Kirkintilloch, Scotland) is a Scottish guitarist and rock musician active in the 1980s and 1990s. Best known for his work with Nazareth (1980-83 & 1990-94), he also had a successful solo career, including a US hit single "Baby Come Back".
Classically trained, he played cello at school and attained his A level in music, but preferred rock music to classical as he said in an interview, 'I was probably earning more than my cello teacher and learning more than he could ever teach me just by being in a rock band.' His first band Phase played the Scottish pub circuit when he was only 15 years old and, in 1978, he joined Zal Cleminson's Zal Band, featuring members of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
He joined Nazareth in 1980, and appeared on their a lbums Snaz (1981), 2XS (1982) and Sound Elixir (1983) before leaving the band.
He issued a solo album Growin' up Too Fast in 1984, and had a hit single in the US with the single, "Baby Come Back", taken from the album. A follow up album called Crankin was released in Japan only in 1985, but with little success. He rejoined Nazareth in 1990, and recorded No Jive (1991) and Move Me (1994) before leaving the band again in 1994. As well as guitar, he also occasionally played keyboards.
After leaving Nazareth, he played at the Mick Ronson Memorial Concert, issued on CD in 1997. He also appears on a number of Nazareth retrospective and compilation albums, including Rock Ballads (1998), Back to the Trenches (2001), Live in Texas '81 (2004), The River Sessions (2004) and Hair of the Dog – Live (2007). His latest solo album Shake was released in 1999.
Billy worked as a truck driver with the supermarket chain ASDA before getting a job as a presenter. Rankin was the breakfast presenter with 96.3 Rock Radio, Scotland's first classic rock station before the station was subject to a corporate aquisition, changing its name to Real Radio XS in the process. Rankin was not part of the reshuffle plans and parted company with the station in July 2012.
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