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Fleetwood Mac · S8 E5
The Songwriter
Christine McVie wrote more Fleetwood Mac hit singles than Stevie or Lindsey. Nobody talks about it. This episode fixes that
Criteria Studios, Miami, February 1977. Stevie won't speak to Lindsey, John won't look at Christine, and Mick is trying to hold the session together with cocaine and charm. Christine McVie sits down at the piano and plays "Don't Stop" for the first time, and for three minutes, everyone in the room forgets they hate each other.
"Holiday Road" (Lindsey Buckingham, official music video, 1983). While Lindsey was scoring Hollywood blockbusters and Stevie was selling out arenas, Christine McVie released a solo album that barely cracked the top 30. Three songwriters, three solo careers, three very different levels of fame. The one who wrote the most hits got the least attention.
The One Nobody Talks About
Ask a casual fan to name Fleetwood Mac's songwriter and they'll say Stevie Nicks or Lindsey Buckingham. Nobody says Christine McVie. Yet she wrote or co-wrote more of the band's hit singles than either of them, and she did it without drama, without mystique, and without ever once making the front page of a tabloid.
Sources
Billboard. "Fleetwood Mac Chart History." Hot 100.
Rolling Stone. "The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time." 2015.
TAP TO REVEAL: Who actually wrote the most Fleetwood Mac hit singles?
“Christine was the most natural songwriter in the band. The rest of us had to agonize. She'd sit at a piano and a song would appear, fully formed, like she'd known it all along.”
— Mick Fleetwood, "Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac," 2014
Holiday Road, Lindsey Buckingham (1983)
Lindsey wrote "Holiday Road" for National Lampoon's Vacation and it became one of the most recognizable movie songs of the 1980s. The production is pure Buckingham: layered guitars, a relentless groove, and a vocal that sounds like he recorded it while grinning. It made him a household name outside of Fleetwood Mac. Meanwhile, Christine was preparing her solo album with the same Warner Bros. label, writing songs just as sharp but without a Chevy Chase movie to carry them into every living room in America.
Sources
Buckingham, Lindsey. Interview. Guitar World, 1984.
Billboard. "Lindsey Buckingham Chart History." Hot 100.
Wickhambreaux, Kent
The small English village where Christine McVie retreated after leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1998. She lived here for sixteen years, painting, gardening, and avoiding planes. She wrote songs nobody heard until she finally returned to the band in 2014.
The Quiet Departure
Christine left Fleetwood Mac in 1998, exhausted by touring and terrified of flying. She settled in Kent and vanished from public life so completely that fans assumed she'd retired for good. What they didn't know was that she'd developed a fear of flying after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and couldn't imagine getting on a plane again. When she finally conquered the phobia in 2013, one of her first calls was to Mick Fleetwood.
Sources
Louder Sound. "Christine McVie on overcoming fear of flying."
Rolling Stone. "Q&A: Christine McVie Can't Wait for Fleetwood Mac World Tour." 2014.
Christine McVie: The Numbers
Love Will Show Us How, Christine McVie (1984)
The second single from Christine's 1984 self-titled solo album, and it sounds exactly like you'd expect: warm, direct, melodic, no fuss. While Stevie was building a mystical solo empire and Lindsey was making art-rock experiments, Christine wrote a three-minute pop song that could have been on any Fleetwood Mac album. That was her gift and her curse. She made it look too easy for anyone to notice how good it was.
Love Will Show Us How, Christine McVie (1984)
The lyrics are vintage Christine: optimistic, unguarded, and completely free of irony. Where Stevie hides behind imagery and Lindsey buries emotion in production, Christine just says what she means. The song is about trusting that love will sort itself out, which is either naive or deeply brave depending on how many times you've been divorced from your bass player.
How many US top-20 singles did Christine McVie write or co-write for Fleetwood Mac?
Christine McVie wrote the songs everyone remembers without anyone remembering she wrote them. Next episode: the man who took those songs and made them sound like nothing else on the radio, one obsessive guitar overdub at a time.
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