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Fleetwood Mac · S4 E9
February 4, 1977
Rumours is released. It will spend 31 weeks at number one and sell over 40 million copies worldwide
February 4, 1977. Rumours arrives in record stores across America, and within six weeks it will be the number-one album in the country.
Fleetwood Mac, You Make Loving Fun (Rumours, 1977). The fourth and final single from Rumours, completing an extraordinary run of four consecutive top-10 hits from one album. Christine McVie at her warmest, with one of the most infectious grooves the band ever recorded.
The Phenomenon
Nobody at Warner Bros. is prepared for what happens next. The album does not just sell well. It sells at a pace that makes the label's projections look like a clerical error, moving a million copies in its first month and showing no signs of slowing down.
You Make Loving Fun, Fleetwood Mac (1977)
"You Make Loving Fun" reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, completing a remarkable four-for-four run of top-10 singles. Christine wrote it about a new relationship during the Rumours sessions, and the joy in her vocal is real in a way that most of the album's emotions are painful. The Fender Rhodes, the layered backing vocals, and Buckingham's understated guitar fills create one of the most effortlessly groovy arrangements on the record.
“We knew the album was good. We did not know it was going to become a way of life for an entire generation. That part was completely beyond anything we could have imagined.”
— Mick Fleetwood, Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, 1990
TAP TO REVEAL: How many copies has Rumours actually sold worldwide?
How many weeks did Rumours spend at #1 on the Billboard 200?
The Grammy
On February 23, 1978, Rumours wins the Grammy for Album of the Year. Five people who spent the previous year destroying each other stand on stage together, smiling for the cameras, holding the award that proves the pain was worth it.
Tusk, Fleetwood Mac
The title track from the follow-up album (1979), and the sound of Lindsey Buckingham refusing to make Rumours again. Where Rumours is polished and accessible, "Tusk" is wild, experimental, and deliberately abrasive, featuring the entire USC Trojan Marching Band. It peaked at #8 on the Hot 100, proving that even Buckingham's most radical impulses could still produce a hit.
Tusk, Fleetwood Mac (1979)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Buckingham's most radical statement, where even the words feel like they're rebelling against the idea of a pop song.
The album is the biggest in the world, the tour is selling out stadiums, and Lindsey Buckingham is already bored. Next season: Tusk, the double album that cost four million dollars, confused everyone, and proved that Fleetwood Mac would rather be interesting than safe.
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To be continued
Season 5: Tusk
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