Harvey was born at 49 Govan Road, Plantation, Glasgow. His musical roots were in Dixieland jazz and skiffle music, which enjoyed considerable popularity in England and Scotland during the late 1950s. During this period, he won a competition that sought "Scotland's answer to Tommy Steele".
In 1959, Harvey formed Alex Harvey's Soul Band, and recorded blues and rock and roll material, with modest success. In 1966, Harvey found more success as a member of the pit band in the London stage production of the musical Hair. This band recorded the live LP Hair Rave Up which contained Harvey originals and other songs not from the stage show. In 1970 Harvey formed Rock Workshop with Ray Russell; their first, self-titled album contained an early version of "Hole In Her Stocking", later to appear on Framed.
In 1972, Harvey formed the Sensational Alex Harvey Band with guitarist Zal Cleminson, bassist Chris Glen, and cousins Ted and Hugh McKenna on drums and keyboards respectively, all previous members of progressive rock act "Tear Gas". In the same year, Alex's 27-year-old brother Les was electrocuted and killed on stage in Swansea while performing with Stone the Crows.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (often shortened to SAHB) produced a succession of highly regarded albums and tours throughout the 1970s, and would give Harvey his greatest successes, both musically and commercially.
Initially considered a part of the burgeoning glam-rock movement, Harvey's wild imagination and unusual skiffle background led the band to explore an extremely diverse range of topics and styles in the course of their career, from film-noir ("The Man In The Jar") to surf music-tinted tales of shark attacks ("Shark's Teeth") to ominous odes to demented faith healers ("The Faith Healer") and epic symphonies about witchcraft ("Isobel Gowdie").
The band had hits in Britain with the single Delilah, a re-make of the Tom Jones hit, which reached No 7 in 1975, and also with "The Boston Tea Party" (June 1976). After Harvey left the group later that year, the other members continued as 'SAHB… without Alex'.
Alex Harvey was also instrumental in the formation of Stone the Crows, by introducing his younger brother Leslie to singer, Maggie Bell.
On 4 February 1982 while waiting to take a ferry back to shore after performing his last concert with his new band, the Electric Cowboys, Harvey suffered a massive heart attack. In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, he suffered a second heart attack, this one fatal. It occurred on the day before his 47th birthday, in Zeebrugge, Belgium.
In 2002, a biography of Harvey by John Neil Munro was published: The Sensational Alex Harvey.
In 2004 the band reformed and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were voted the fifth greatest Scottish band of all time in a 2005 survey, that had 15,000 participants, reaching higher up the list than Runrig, Nazareth, Lulu, Texas, and Primal Scream.
In 2008 Zal left the band. Julian Hutson Saxby played live with SAHB and was later announced as a permanent replacement. Zal's departure has also meant a change of style with the heavy guitar sound being replaced by a return to the original arrangements.
Following Zal's departure, the band is now: Hugh McKenna; Ted McKenna; Chris Glen; "Mad" Max Maxwell; and Julian Hutson-Saxby.
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