1975 Fleetwood Mac album, aka - The White Album

In 1969 - Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Peter Green

Fleetwood Mac's first self titled album, was a no-frills blues album and was released on the Blue Horizon label in February 1968.  The album was successful in the UK, hitting no.4, though it did not have any singles on it.  The band soon released two singles Black Magic Woman (later a big hit for Santana) and Need Your Love So Bad. Shortly after the release of their second album, Mr. Wonderful, Fleetwood Mac added guitarist Danny Kirwan, then just eighteen years old, to their line-up, recruited from the South London blues trio Boilerhouse.  A mature and accomplished self-taught guitarist, Kirwan's signature vibrato and unique style added a new dimension to an already complete band.  With Kirwan the band released their first number one single in Europe, Albatross. In 1969, following in the tradition of the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac recorded in Chicago with a variety of bluesmen, including Willie Dixon and Otis Spann.  The set was released later that year, after the band had left Blue Horizon for a one-album deal with Immediate Records; in the U.S., they signed with Reprise/Warner Bros., and by 1970, Warner began releasing the band's British records as well.

Christine McVie

Despite their success, Peter Green was growing increasingly disturbed due to his large ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs.  After announcing that he was planning to give all of his earnings away, Green suddenly left the band in the spring of 1970.  Kirwan and Spencer were left with the task of having to fill up Peter's space in their live shows and on their recordings. Christine Perfect, a vocalist/pianist who had earned a small but loyal following in the U.K. by singing with Spencer Davis and the Chicken Shack was twice voted female artist of the year in England.  Christine had also worked as a session player for Fleetwood Mac, piano and backgrougd vocals, including drawing the cover of the Kiln House album.  Since Fleetwood Mac were progressing and developing a new sound, she was asked to join the band.  Contractual difficulties prevented her from becoming a full-fledged member of Fleetwood Mac until 1971; by that time she had married John McVie. While on tour in February 1971, Jeremy Spencer said he was going out to get a magazine, but never returned.  After several days of frantic searching, the band discovered that Spencer had joined a religious group, the Children of God.  Christine and Danny began to move the band towards mainstream rock on 1971's Future Games, but new guitarist Bob Welch exerted a heavy influence on 1972's Bare Trees.  Kirwan (with alcholoic issues) was fired and replaced by guitarists Bob Weston and Dave Walker, who appeared on 1973's Penguin.  Walker left after that album, and Weston departed after making its follow-up, Mystery to Me .  In 1974 they released Heroes Are Hard To Find and, with Welch leaving the band, they moved to California in the hopes of restarting their career.

Stevie Nicks

Early in 1975, Fleetwood and McVie were auditioning engineers for the band's new album when they heard Buckingham-Nicks, an album recorded by the soft rock duo Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.  The pair were asked to join the group and their addition revived the band's musical and commercial fortunes.  Not only did Buckingham and Nicks write songs, but they brought distinctive talents the band had been lacking.  Buckingham was a skilled pop craftsman, capable of arranging a commercial song while keeping it musically adventurous.  Nicks had a husky voice and a sexy, hippie gypsy stage persona that gave the band a charismatic frontwoman. The new lineup of Fleetwood Mac released their eponymous debut in 1975 (aka The White Album) and it slowly became a huge hit, reaching number one in 1976 on the strength of the singles Over My Head, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me.  The last two falling just short of the top ten, both at No. 11. Until the release of this album, Fleetwood Mac's albums generally sold around 300,000 – 350,000 copies apiece.  In 1976, Fleetwood Mac (the album) was certified 5x platinum by the RIAA representing shipments of five million units in the US alone.  This album helped launch them as musical superstars with an almost constant radio presence.  In 2003, the album was ranked No. 182 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Wanderin' Spirit
August, 2014
"Fleetwood Mac"

This page has been made for viewing in Internet Explorer.  In order for all audio to play in Chrome or Firefox you will need to install the IE Tab extension and add https://www.angelfire.com/* to the Auto URL list, thank you.