Fleetwood Mac

Few groups navigated a stylistic transformation as profound as Fleetwood Mac. Conceived in the late 1960s as a sharp-edged British blues unit, the ensemble steadily matured into a widely adored and influential pop-rock force over roughly a decade. Guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer first supplied the gritty psychedelic blues-rock texture; keyboardist and songwriter Christine McVie then steered the sound toward pop and rock. By the mid-1970s the band had settled in California and incorporated the songwriting and vocal talents of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, propelling the lineup to become one of the era’s dominant acts. The 1977 release Rumours fused melodic soft rock with confessional singer-songwriter sensibilities and stands among the all-time best-selling albums. Popularity persisted into the early 1980s even as Buckingham, Nicks, and McVie each launched solo careers. The classic members reassembled for 1987’s Tango in the Night, yet further personnel shifts and instability culminated in the 1995 album Time. A swift reunion produced the 1997 live set The Dance, after which the group stabilized without Christine McVie and issued 2003’s Say You Will. McVie rejoined for a run of lucrative tours beginning in 2014, though internal accord proved fleeting; Buckingham was removed ahead of the 2018 anniversary tour, underscoring that change itself remained Fleetwood Mac’s only constant.

The band’s origins trace to John Mayall’s storied British blues collective, the Bluesbreakers. Bassist John McVie joined as a founding member in 1963. Peter Green succeeded Eric Clapton in 1966, and drummer Mick Fleetwood arrived the following year. Emulating the breakthroughs of Cream, the Yardbirds, and Jimi Hendrix, the three left Mayall in 1967. At their first appearance at the British Jazz and Blues Festival that August, Bob Brunning handled bass duties because McVie remained contractually bound to Mayall; McVie entered the fold weeks later, by which point slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer had also signed on. Fleetwood Mac promptly recorded for Blue Horizon and released their self-titled debut the next year, an immediate U.K. success that lingered more than twelve months inside the Top Ten yet barely registered in America. Danny Kirwan joined on guitar in 1968. In 1969 the group cut Fleetwood Mac in Chicago alongside blues luminaries including Willie Dixon and Otis Spann; the album surfaced later that year after the band had departed Blue Horizon for a lone Immediate Records project. In the States they aligned with Reprise/Warner Bros., and by 1970 Warner began issuing the British catalog domestically.

English Rose and Then Play On, both issued in 1969, signaled an expanding musical palette that distanced the group from strict blues orthodoxy. Peter Green’s “Man of the World” and “Oh Well” both peaked at number two that year. Despite his central creative role, Green’s heavy use of hallucinogens precipitated deepening instability, and after declaring his intention to donate his earnings he exited in spring 1970. He later released two solo albums during the 1970s but performed only sporadically thereafter. Christine Perfect, already known in Britain through work with Spencer Davis and Chicken Shack, replaced him; she had contributed uncredited piano and vocals to Then Play On. Contractual hurdles delayed her official induction until 1971, the same year she married John McVie.

Christine McVie is absent from 1970’s Kiln House, the first album recorded without Peter Green. Jeremy Spencer guided that record’s direction, yet his own mental difficulties, exacerbated by substance use, intensified. While touring America in early 1971 Spencer vanished and later surfaced as a member of the Children of God religious movement. The departure threw the remaining members into uncertainty over their musical path. Christine McVie and Danny Kirwan guided the band toward mainstream rock on 1971’s Future Games, while new guitarist Bob Welch shaped 1972’s Bare Trees. Kirwan was dismissed after Bare Trees; guitarists Bob Weston and Dave Walker appeared on 1973’s Penguin. Walker departed after that album and Weston left following 1973’s Mystery to Me. In 1974 manager Clifford Davis assembled an unauthorized Fleetwood Mac for an American tour; the genuine members prevailed in a lawsuit, though the legal battle sidelined the real band for most of the year. During the hiatus they released Heroes Are Hard to Find. Late in 1974 the group relocated to California seeking a career reset, after which Welch exited to form Paris.

Early in 1975, while Fleetwood and McVie auditioned engineers for a new album, they encountered the soft-rock duo album Buckingham-Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were invited to join, instantly revitalizing both commercial and creative momentum. Buckingham contributed meticulous pop craftsmanship capable of balancing accessibility with adventurous arrangement, while Nicks supplied a distinctive husky voice and charismatic hippie-gypsy persona. The refreshed lineup’s self-titled 1975 debut climbed slowly to number one in 1976, fueled by “Over My Head,” “Rhiannon,” and “Say You Love Me,” and eventually surpassed five million U.S. sales.

Behind the scenes, however, fractures widened. The McVies divorced in 1976 and Buckingham and Nicks ended their relationship soon after; those tensions supplied the emotional core of Rumours. Issued in spring 1977, the album topped both American and British charts, spawned the Top Ten singles “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop,” and “You Make Loving Fun,” and ultimately moved more than seventeen million copies domestically, ranking it second among all-time best-sellers. An exhaustive world tour followed before the band retreated to record its successor. Conceived largely by Buckingham, the experimental double album Tusk arrived in 1979, fell short of Rumours-level sales yet achieved multi-platinum status, and yielded the Top Ten hits “Sara” and “Tusk.” The double live album Live appeared in 1980.

After the Tusk tour each of Fleetwood, Buckingham, and Nicks pursued solo work. Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna (1981) reached number one and featured “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Leather and Lace,” and “Edge of Seventeen.” Buckingham’s Law and Order (1981) produced the Top Ten single “Trouble.” Fleetwood issued the world-music project The Visitor. The band reconvened for 1982’s Mirage, a more conventional effort that hit number one and included “Hold Me” and “Gypsy.”

Subsequent solo activity again occupied Buckingham, Nicks, and Christine McVie. Nicks maintained visibility with the Top 15 albums The Wild Heart (1983) and Rock a Little (1985); McVie scored a Top Ten hit with “Got a Hold on Me” in 1984. Buckingham earned critical praise for 1984’s Go Insane yet saw no major singles. The group reassembled in 1985; Buckingham, increasingly dissatisfied with the band’s constraints, intended Tango in the Night to be his final Fleetwood Mac album. Released in 1987, the record mixed reviews but strong sales, reaching the Top Ten and generating Top 20 singles “Little Lies,” “Seven Wonders,” and “Everywhere.”

Buckingham departed after completing Tango in the Night; Billy Burnette and Rick Vito replaced him. The revised lineup’s 1990 album Behind the Mask became the first since 1975 not to achieve gold status. After its tour Nicks and Christine McVie stated they would record but not tour; Vito exited in 1991. The box set 25 Years—The Chain appeared in 1992. The classic Rumours quintet reunited briefly for President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, yet the appearance did not yield a sustained reunion. Later that year Nicks left and was succeeded by Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason; Christine McVie departed shortly afterward. The new configuration toured in 1994 and released Time in 1995 to minimal notice. Commercial disappointments on all sides prompted speculation of a full reunion, realized in 1997 when the Rumours lineup recorded the live album The Dance. It debuted at number one on Billboard and produced an adult-contemporary hit with a new version of “Landslide.” The supporting tour spanned the year, and early in 1998 the band entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Christine McVie announced her departure soon after.

Although her exit tempered reunion momentum, the remaining quartet began writing and recording. Say You Will emerged in April 2003, the first studio album in eight years and the first in sixteen to feature Buckingham and Nicks. It went gold in the U.S., U.K., and Canada; singles “Peacekeeper” and “Say You Will” reached the U.S. Adult Contemporary Top 20, and the accompanying international tour proved successful. After several quiet years during which Buckingham resumed solo work and the band unsuccessfully approached Sheryl Crow as a replacement for Christine McVie, they mounted a 2009 tour. Four years later the 35th-anniversary deluxe reissue of Rumours coincided with another tour. Midway through the dates the group surprise-released a four-track Extended Play of fresh material that entered the U.S. charts at number 48.

During a September 2013 residency at London’s O2 Arena, Christine McVie performed with Fleetwood Mac for the first time in fifteen years. In January 2014 the band confirmed her return and began work on a new album. Progress proceeded gradually amid solo projects and the demands of ongoing world touring in 2014 and 2015. A Super Deluxe reissue of Tusk arrived for the 2015 holidays, followed the next autumn by a Deluxe reissue of Mirage; further catalog expansions included a 2017 Super Deluxe edition of Tango in the Night and an early-2018 upgrade of the 1975 album. Parallel news centered on Buckingham and McVie’s 2017 duet album, originally conceived as a Fleetwood Mac project but rebranded Buckingham McVie once Stevie Nicks elected to focus on solo material. Retaining Fleetwood and John McVie as the rhythm section and working with producers Mitchell Froom and Mark Needham, the pair released the album in June 2017.

Early in 2018 Fleetwood Mac reunited for a MusiCares Person of the Year concert, which proved to be Buckingham’s final appearance with the group. He was dismissed in April and later filed suit concerning the termination. Neil Finn and Mike Campbell joined as replacements, and the revised lineup commenced an international tour in September 2018, supported by the compilation 50 Years: Don’t Stop, which debuted at number 12 in the U.K. and number 65 on Billboard’s Top 200. The live collection Before the Beginning: Rare Live & Demo Sessions 1968–1970 appeared in November 2019, presenting previously unreleased recordings from Peter Green’s tenure. Green died in his sleep on July 25, 2020, at age 73. Two months later the box set Fleetwood Mac: 1969–1974 collected expanded, remastered editions of all albums issued during those years. Christine McVie passed away on November 30, 2022, following a brief illness. In the aftermath both Fleetwood and Nicks stated that the band would no longer tour or record.