Fleetwood Mac had three main eras, the late 60s Blues Era, the early 70s Pop Era, and their most famous one, the Buckingham Nicks Era.
Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (who had recorded one album using the name Buckingham Nicks) joined the British band in Los Angeles at the very beginning of 1975. At the time, Fleetwood Mac was not well known in the United States, but that soon changed. We’ll take a look at the music Fleetwood Mac made when five artists combined their talents…drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, keyboardist and singer-songwriter Christine McVie, guitarist and singer-songwriter Lindsey Buckingham, and singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks.
The above six albums (recorded between 1975 & 1990) make up the bulk of the studio work by the Buckingham-Nicks Era of Fleetwood Mac. There were two albums after that, but they were not up to par, and one didn’t even chart. Their Greatest Hits album includes songs from five of these albums. Here are the songs selected.
It’s a good collection, but is missing some key songs and feels incomplete.
Let’s look at their studio albums more closely. The first two albums of the Buckingham-Nicks Era are “must have” for Fleetwood Mac Fans.
These two great albums from 1975 & 1977 are the two highest-selling albums by Fleetwood Mac. Their self titled album introduced us to the new lineup, and includes the classic tracks “Monday Morning”, “Rhiannon”, “Over My Head”, “Say You Love Me” and “Landslide”. It took their hit singles and a lot of touring, but eventually Fleetwood Mac hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.
Rumours is one of the most popular albums of all time. It spent an incredible 31 weeks in the #1 position, and almost unbelievably is still found high on many yearly sales and streaming charts. Fleetwood Mac fans likely know all of the songs, and most of the tracks received radio airplay, so it’s kind of like a greatest hits collection.
This is the listing from the first CD of my Deluxe Edition, and you can see it includes “Silver Springs”, which had been left off the original 1977 album because of time limitations of the vinyl format.
The next four albums could not possibly live up to the brilliance of Rumours, but they still have some great songs, which are shown on a couple of playlists below.
Thought you might like to see a recommendation for two CD-length “Fleetwood Mac Best” playlists. These songs are in chronological order, which is usually the best format for collections. The only variance is that the three songs from Mirage were moved before the Tusk songs in order to keep those eight tracks together. On the lists you can see which albums the songs came from.
As expected, Rumours has the most representation. Tusk provides as many songs as Fleetwood Mac, but of course Tusk is a double album. The surprise here is that Behind The Mask has six very good songs included, even though it’s somewhat of an overlooked album (since Lindsey Buckingham wasn’t on it).
The songwriting breakdown is interesting. Christine McVie has the most with 16, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham each have 11, and there are two outside writers. If you look at almost any sales or streaming statistics, the songs by Stevie Nicks are the most popular, even though she didn’t write as many of the band’s hits as McVie. Of course Nicks emerged as the group’s biggest star, had many solo hits, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as both a member of the band and as a solo artist.
Here’s Nicks shown during the height of her career…in 1976 as part of the band, and then in 1981 on tour for her #1 smash album Bella Donna. It included the hits “Edge Of Seventeen”, “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” and “Leather And Lace”. Bella Donna outsold all but the first two Fleetwood Mac studio albums from this era.
The popularity of Fleetwood Mac has been a phenomenon. Their main studio recordings seem timeless, and they were an extremely successful touring act for decades.
Extra: If you want to make a single purchase to get most of Fleetwood Mac’s best recordings, this two-disc Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac is good, and can be found reasonably priced. I spotted it new for $14.50 on Amazon.
But…if you can make playlists on your streaming service, try putting together the two Fleetwood Mac Best playlists, and see how they sound.