I am here to make the argument that the Fleetwood Mac album is every bit as good as their highly-regarded masterwork, Rumours.
On this day in 1975, the revamped lineup of Fleetwood Mac released their tenth studio album. It was called, simply, “Fleetwood Mac.” Gone was guitarist and vocalist Bob Welch, and in were Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Mick Fleetwood met them, and producer Keith Olsen, at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles. After hearing a track from the duo’s debut album Buckingham Nicks, he offered them, and Olson, a gig.
The Fleetwood Mac album was recorded in a little over a month in January and February, 1975. Songs recorded included several Steve Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham songs the duo were planning to use for their second album. Not long after, the band hit the road for an exhaustive U.S. tour to support the album. The tour kicked off May 15, and the album was released on July 11, which gave the band a chance to preview the songs while on the road. They even performed two Buckingham Nicks songs, and even a song from Christine McVie’s days in the band Chicken Shack.
On the tour’s first leg, from May 15 to June 8, they only took two days off. For the second leg, they did 53 shows in three months, including stops at the Tower Theater on May 29 and The Spectrum on October 11. Stevie Nicks would later say their grueling tour of the U.S. that year helped push sales of the new album.
And she’s not wrong. The album peaked at #1 on the chart, but not until almost 16 months after it first came out. It was a combination of the band hitting so many cities, plus the support from radio, that kept the album alive and gave it its slow climb to the top. Even then, it only stayed at #1 for one week. Since then, Fleetwood Mac has gone on to sell over 7 million copies in the U.S.
Sure, none of those feats equalled their followup, Rumours, but I’m here to tell you I think it’s every bit as good as Rumours. A track-by-track analysis may help prove my point:
