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Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. They have sold more than 120 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling bands. In 1998, select members of Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^[6][7] and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.^[8]

Fleetwood Mac was founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Bassist John McVie completed the lineup for their self-titled debut album. Danny Kirwan joined as a third guitarist in 1968. Keyboardist Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician from the second album, married McVie and joined in 1970. At this time it was primarily a British blues band, scoring a UK number one with "Albatross",^[9] and had lesser hits with the singles "Oh Well" and "Black Magic Woman". All three guitarists left in succession during the early 1970s, to be replaced by guitarists Bob Welch and Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker. By 1974, all three had either departed or been dismissed, leaving the band without a male lead vocalist or guitarist.

In late 1974, while Fleetwood was scouting studios in Los Angeles, he was introduced to folk-rock duo Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac soon asked Buckingham to be their new lead guitarist, and Buckingham agreed on condition that Nicks would also join the band. The addition of Buckingham and Nicks gave the band a more pop rock sound, and their 1975 self-titled album, Fleetwood Mac, reached No. 1 in the United States. Rumours (1977), Fleetwood Mac's second album after the arrival of Buckingham and Nicks, produced four U.S. Top 10 singles and remained at number one on the American albums chart for 31 weeks. It also reached the top spot in various countries around the world and won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. Rumours has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-selling album in history. The band went through personal turmoil while recording the album, as both the romantic partnerships in the band (one being John and Christine McVie, and the other being Buckingham and Nicks) separated while continuing to make music together.

The band's personnel remained stable through three more studio albums, but by the late 1980s began to disintegrate. After Buckingham and Nicks each left the band, a 1993 one-off performance for the first inauguration of Bill Clinton featured the lineup of Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Nicks, and Buckingham back together for the first time in six years. A full reunion occurred four years later, and the group released their fourth U.S. No. 1 album, The Dance (1997), a live compilation of their work. Christine McVie left the band in 1998, but continued to work with the band in a session capacity. Meanwhile, the group remained together as a four-piece, releasing their most recent studio album, Say You Will, in 2003. Christine McVie rejoined the band full-time in 2014. In 2018, Buckingham was fired from the band^[10] and was replaced by Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House.

History

1967–1970: Formation and early years

Fleetwood Mac were formed in July 1967 in London, England, when Peter Green left the British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Peter Green had previously replaced guitarist Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers^[11] and had received critical acclaim for his work on their album A Hard Road. Green had been in two bands with Mick Fleetwood, Peter B's Looners and the subsequent Shotgun Express (which featured a young Rod Stewart as vocalist),^[12] and suggested Fleetwood as a replacement for drummer Aynsley Dunbar when Dunbar left the Bluesbreakers to join the new Jeff Beck/Rod Stewart band.^[13] John Mayall agreed and Fleetwood joined the Bluesbreakers.

The Bluesbreakers now consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie and Mayall. Mayall gave Green free recording time as a gift, in which Fleetwood, McVie and Green recorded five songs. The fifth song was an instrumental that Green named after the rhythm section, "Fleetwood Mac".

Soon after this, Green suggested to Fleetwood that they form a new band. The pair wanted McVie on bass guitar and named the band 'Fleetwood Mac' to entice him, but McVie opted to keep his steady income with Mayall rather than take a risk with a new band. In the meantime Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood had teamed up with slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning. Brunning was in the band on the understanding that he would leave if McVie agreed to join. The Green, Fleetwood, Spencer, Brunning version of the band made its debut on 13 August 1967 at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival as 'Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac', also featuring Jeremy Spencer. Brunning played only a few gigs with Fleetwood Mac.^[14] Within weeks of this show, John McVie agreed to join the band as permanent bassist.^[15][16]

Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut album was a no-frills blues album and was released by the Blue Horizon label in February 1968.^[17] There were no other players on the album (except on the song "Long Grey Mare", which was recorded with Brunning on bass). The album was successful in the UK and reached no. 4, although 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".^[18]

The band's second studio album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. Like their first album, it was all blues. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and a PA system, rather than being plugged into the board.^[19] They also added horns and featured a friend of the band on keyboards, Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack.^[20]

Shortly after the release of their second album Fleetwood Mac added 18-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan to their line-up. He was recruited from the South London blues trio Boilerhouse, which consisted of Kirwan on guitar, Trevor Stevens on bass and Dave Terrey on drums.^[21] Green and Fleetwood had watched Boilerhouse rehearse in a basement boiler-room and Green had been so impressed that he invited the band to play support slots for Fleetwood Mac. Green wanted Boilerhouse to become a professional band but Stevens and Terrey were not prepared to turn professional, so Green tried to find another rhythm section for Kirwan by placing an ad in Melody Maker. There were over 300 applicants, but when Green and Fleetwood ran auditions at the Nag's Head in Battersea (home of the Mike Vernon Blue Horizon Club) the hard-to-please Green could not find anyone good enough, so he invited Kirwan to join Fleetwood Mac as a third guitarist.^[13]

Green had been frustrated that Jeremy Spencer had little desire to contribute to his songs. Kirwan, a self-taught guitarist, had a signature vibrato and a unique style that added a new dimension to an already complete band. With Kirwan in the band they released their first number one single in Europe, "Albatross", on which Kirwan duetted with Green. Green said later that the success of 'Albatross' was thanks to Kirwan. "If it wasn't for Danny, I would never had had a number one hit record." ^[22] Around this time they released the compilation album English Rose, which contained half of Mr. Wonderful, new songs from Kirwan. Their second compilation album,The Pious Bird of Good Omen, contained a collection of singles, B-sides and a selection of work the band had done with Eddie Boyd.

The band went to the United States in January 1969 and recorded many songs at the soon-to-close Chess Records Studio with some of the blues legends of Chicago, including Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Otis Spann. These would be Fleetwood Mac's last all-blues recordings. Along with the change of style the band was also going through label changes. Up until that point they had been on the Blue Horizon label, but with Kirwan in the band the musical possibilities had become too diverse for a blues-only label. The band signed with Immediate Records and released the single "Man of the World", which became another British and European hit. For the B-side Spencer fronted Fleetwood Mac as "Earl Vince and the Valiants" and recorded "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite", typifying the more raucous rock 'n' roll side of the band. Immediate Records was in bad shape, however, and the band shopped around for a new deal. The Beatles wanted the band on Apple Records (Mick Fleetwood and George Harrison were brothers-in-law), but the band's manager Clifford Davis decided to go with Warner Bros. Records (through Reprise Records, a Frank Sinatra-founded label), the label they have stayed with ever since.

Under the wing of Reprise Fleetwood Mac released their third studio album, Then Play On, in September 1969. Although the initial pressing of the American release of this album was the same as the British version, it was altered to contain the song "Oh Well", which featured consistently in live performances from the time of its release through 1997 and again starting in 2009. Then Play On, the band's first rock album, featured only the songs of Kirwan and Green. Jeremy Spencer, meanwhile, had recorded a solo album of 1950s-style rock and roll songs, backed by the rest of the band.

In July 1969 Fleetwood Mac opened for Ten Years After at the Schaefer Music Festival at New York City's Wollman Rink. They appeared at the festival again in 1970.

By 1970 Peter Green, the frontman of the band, was not in good shape. He had taken LSD at a hippie commune in Munich, which may have contributed to the onset of schizophrenia.^[23] Clifford Davis, quoted by Bob Brunning, said: "The truth about Peter Green and how he ended up how he did is very simple. We were touring Europe in late 1969. When we were in Germany, Peter told me he had been invited to a party. I knew there were going to be a lot of drugs around and I suggested that he didn't go. But he went anyway and I understand from him that he.... took what turned out to be very bad, impure LSD. He was never the same again."^[24] However, German author and filmmaker Rainer Langhans stated in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier met Green in Munich and invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune, where the drinks were spiked with acid.^{[25][better source needed]} Langhans and Obermaier were planning to organise an open-air "Bavarian Woodstock" at which they wanted Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones to be the main acts, and they hoped Green would help them to get in contact with The Rolling Stones.^[25]

Green's last hit with Fleetwood Mac was "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown)" (first recorded at the Boston Tea Party in February 1970 and later recorded by Judas Priest). This recording was released as Green's mental stability deteriorated. He wanted to give all of the band's money to charity, but the other members of the band disagreed and Green left the band. His last show with Fleetwood Mac was on 20 May 1970. During that show the band went past their allotted time and the power was shut off, although Mick Fleetwood kept drumming. Some of the Boston Tea Party recordings (5/6/7 February 1970) were eventually released in the 1980s as the Live in Boston album. A more complete remastered 3-volume compilation was released by Snapper Music in the late 1990s.

1970–1974: Transitional era

Kirwan and Spencer were left with the task of replacing Green in their live shows and on their recordings. In September 1970 Fleetwood Mac released their fourth studio album, Kiln House. Kirwan's songs on the album moved the band in the direction of rock, while Spencer's contributions focused on re-creating the country-tinged "Sun Sound" of the late 1950s. Christine Perfect, who had retired from the music business after one unsuccessful solo album, contributed to Kiln House, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards. She also drew the album cover. Since Fleetwood Mac were progressing and developing a new sound, Perfect was asked to join the band. They released a single, Danny Kirwan's "Dragonfly" b/w "The Purple Dancer" in the UK and certain European countries, but despite good notices in the press it was not a success. The B-side has been reissued only once, on a Reprise German and Dutch-only "Best of" album, making it one of their most obscure songs.

Christine Perfect, who by this point had married bassist John McVie, made her first appearance with the band as Christine McVie at Bristol University, England, in May 1969, just as she was leaving Chicken Shack. She had had success with the Etta James classic "I'd Rather Go Blind" and was twice voted female artist of the year in England. Christine McVie played her first gig as an official member of Fleetwood Mac on 1 August 1970 in New Orleans, Louisiana.^[26] CBS Records, which now owned Blue Horizon (except in the US and Canada), released the band's fifth compilation album, The Original Fleetwood Mac, containing previously unreleased material. The album was relatively successful, and the band continued to gain popularity.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[27] The band were liable for the remaining shows on the tour and asked Peter Green to step in as a replacement. Green brought along his friend Nigel Watson, who played the congas. (Twenty-five years later Green and Watson collaborated again to form the Peter Green Splinter Group.) Green was only back with Fleetwood Mac temporarily and the band began a search for a new guitarist.^[28] Green insisted on playing only new material and none he had written. He and Watson played only the last week of shows. The San Bernardino show on 20 February was recorded and still exists.

In the summer of 1971 the band held auditions for a replacement guitarist at their large country home, "Benifold", which they had jointly bought with their manager Davis for £23,000 (equivalent to £349,500 in 2018^[29]) prior to the Kiln House tour.^[30] A friend of the band, Judy Wong, recommended her high school friend Bob Welch, who was living in Paris, France, at the time. The band held a few meetings with Welch and decided to hire him, without actually playing with him or listening to any of his recordings.

In September 1971 the band released their fifth studio album, Future Games. As a result of Welch's arrival and Spencer's departure the album was different from anything they had done up to that point. While it became the band's first studio album to miss the charts in the UK, it helped to expand the band's appeal in the United States. In Europe CBS released Fleetwood Mac's first Greatest Hits album, which mostly consisted of songs by Peter Green, with one song by Spencer and one by Kirwan.

In 1972, six months after the release of Future Games, the band released their sixth studio album, Bare Trees. Mostly composed by Kirwan, Bare Trees featured the Welch-penned single "Sentimental Lady", which would be a much bigger hit for Welch five years later when he re-recorded it for his solo album French Kiss, backed by Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. It also featured "Spare Me a Little of Your Love", a bright Christine McVie song that became a staple of the band's live act throughout the early to mid-1970s.

While the band was doing well in the studio, their tours turned out to be problematic. Danny Kirwan had developed an alcohol dependency and was becoming alienated from Welch and the McVies. When Kirwan smashed his Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar before a concert, refused to go on stage and criticised the band afterwards, Fleetwood fired him.^[31]

The next two and a half years for Fleetwood Mac were their most difficult. In the three albums they released in this period they constantly changed line-ups. In September 1972 the band added guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker, formerly of Savoy Brown and Idle Race.^[32] Bob Weston was well known as a slide guitarist and had known the band from his touring period with Long John Baldry. Fleetwood Mac also hired Savoy Brown's road manager, John Courage. Fleetwood, The McVies, Welch, Weston and Walker recorded the band's seventh studio album, Penguin, which was released in January 1973. After the tour the band fired Walker because they felt his vocal style and attitude did not fit well with the rest of the band.^[33]

The remaining five members carried on and recorded the band's eighth studio album, Mystery to Me, six months later. This album contained Welch's song "Hypnotized", which received a great amount of airplay on the radio and became one of the band's most successful songs to date in the US. The band was proud of the new album and anticipated that it would be a smash hit. While it did eventually go Gold, personal problems within the band emerged. The McVies' marriage was under a lot of stress, which was aggravated by their constant working with each other and by John McVie's considerable alcohol abuse.^[34] During the tour Weston had an affair with Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd Fleetwood, the sister of Pattie Boyd Harrison. Courage fired Weston and the tour was cancelled. The lack of touring meant that the album was unable to chart as high as the previous one.

1974: Name dispute

In 1974, the band's manager, Clifford Davis, claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac. He recruited members of the band Legs, which had recently issued one single under Davis's management,^[35] to tour as Fleetwood Mac. The band consisted of Elmer Gantry (vocals, guitar), Kirby Gregory (guitar), Paul Martinez (bass), John Wilkinson (keyboards) and Australian-born drummer Craig Collinge (formerly of the Librettos, Procession and Third World War). The members of this group were told that Mick Fleetwood would join them on later dates, and claimed that Fleetwood had been involved in the planning stages before dropping out.^[36]

As the tour got under way, Fleetwood Mac's road manager John Courage realised that the line-up was not authentic.^{[clarification needed]} Courage hid the first Fleetwood Mac's equipment, helping to shorten the tour, and the new band dissolved. The lawsuit that followed regarding who owned the rights to the name put the original Fleetwood Mac on hiatus for almost a year. Although the band was named after Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, they had apparently signed contracts in which they had forfeited the rights to the name.^{[citation needed]}

Nobody from the alternative lineup was ever made a part of the real Fleetwood Mac, although some later played in Danny Kirwan's studio band. Gantry and Gregory went on to become members of Stretch, whose 1975 UK hit single "Why Did You Do It" was written about the touring debacle.^[36] Gantry later collaborated with the Alan Parsons Project. Martinez went on to play with the Deep Purple offshoot Paice Ashton Lord, as well as Robert Plant's backing band.^{[citation needed]}

1974: Return of the authentic Fleetwood Mac

While the other band had been on tour, Welch stayed in Los Angeles and connected with entertainment attorneys. He realised that the original Fleetwood Mac was being neglected by Warner Bros and that they would need to change their base of operation from England to America, to which the rest of the band agreed. Rock promoter Bill Graham wrote a letter to Warner Bros to convince them that the real Fleetwood Mac was, in fact, Fleetwood, Welch, and the McVies. This did not end the legal battle but the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again.^[37] Instead of hiring another manager, Fleetwood Mac decided to manage themselves.^{[citation needed]}

In September 1974, Fleetwood Mac signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros, but remained on the Reprise label. The band released their ninth studio album, Heroes Are Hard to Find, in September 1974 and, for the first time in its history, the band had only one guitarist. While on tour they added a second keyboardist, Doug Graves, who had been an engineer on Heroes Are Hard to Find. In late 1974 Graves was preparing to become a permanent member of the band by the end of their US tour. He said:

I'm looking forward to adding something to this already great band. I helped engineer their album 'Heroes Are Hard to Find' and got to know each member well. It came to me as a shock when Mick asked me to join but I am enjoying playing live with the band, and hopefully will start a new studio album with the band soon.

However, Graves did not ultimately join full-time. In 1980, Christine McVie explained the decision:

"He (Doug Graves) was there to back me up, but I think it was decided after the first two or three concerts that I was better off without him. The band wanted me to expand my role and have a little more freedom, so he played some organ behind me, but he didn't play the same way I did."^[38]

Robert ("Bobby") Hunt, who had been in the band Head West with Bob Welch back in 1970, replaced Graves. Neither musician proved to be a long-term addition to the line-up. Welch left soon after the tour ended (on 5 December 1974 at Cal State University), having grown tired of touring and legal struggles. Nevertheless, the tour had enabled the Heroes album to reach a higher position on the American charts than any of the band's previous records.^{[citation needed][39]}

1975–1987: Addition of Buckingham and Nicks, and mainstream success

After Welch announced that he was leaving the band, Fleetwood began searching for a replacement. While Fleetwood was checking out Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, the house engineer, Keith Olsen, played him a track he had recorded in the studio, "Frozen Love", from the album Buckingham Nicks (1973). Fleetwood liked it and was introduced to the guitarist from the band, Lindsey Buckingham, who was at Sound City that day recording demos. Fleetwood asked him to join Fleetwood Mac and Buckingham agreed, on the condition that his music partner and girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, be included. Buckingham and Nicks joined the band on New Year's Eve 1974, within four weeks of the previous incarnation splitting.^[40][41]

In 1975, the new line-up released another self-titled album, their tenth studio album. The album was a breakthrough for the band and became a huge hit, reaching No.1 in the US and selling over 7 million copies. Among the hit singles from this album were Christine McVie's "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" and Stevie Nicks's "Rhiannon", as well as the much-played album track "Landslide", a live rendition of which became a hit twenty years later on The Dance album.

	"Landslide" (Fleetwood Mac) Menu 0:00 17 second sample from Fleetwood Mac's song "Landslide".
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In 1976, the band was suffering from severe stress. With success came the end of John and Christine McVie's marriage, as well as Buckingham and Nicks's long-term romantic relationship. Fleetwood, meanwhile, was in the midst of divorce proceedings from his wife, Jenny. The pressure on Fleetwood Mac to release a successful follow-up album, combined with their new-found wealth, led to creative and personal tensions which were allegedly fuelled by high consumption of drugs and alcohol.^[42]

The band's eleventh studio album, Rumours (the band's first release on the main Warner label after Reprise was retired and all of its acts were reassigned to the parent label), was released in the spring of 1977. In this album, the band members laid bare the emotional turmoil they were experiencing at the time. Rumours was critically acclaimed and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1977. The album generated multiple Top Ten singles, including Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way", Nicks's US No.1 "Dreams" and Christine McVie's "Don't Stop" and "You Make Loving Fun". Buckingham's "Second Hand News", Nicks's "Gold Dust Woman" and "The Chain" (the only song written by all five band members) also received significant radio airplay. By 2003 Rumours had sold over 19 million copies in the US alone (certified as a diamond album by the RIAA) and a total of 40 million copies worldwide, bringing it to eighth on the list of best-selling albums. Fleetwood Mac supported the album with a lucrative tour.

On 10 October 1979, Fleetwood Mac were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to the music industry at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard.^[43][44]

Buckingham convinced Fleetwood to let his work on their next album be more experimental and to be allowed to work on tracks at home before bringing them to the rest of the band in the studio. The result of this, the band's twelfth studio album Tusk, was a 20-track double album released in 1979. It produced three hit singles: Lindsey Buckingham's "Tusk" (US No. 8), which featured the USC Trojan Marching Band, Christine McVie's "Think About Me" (US No. 20), and Stevie Nicks's 61/2 minute opus "Sara" (US No. 7). "Sara" was cut to 41/2 minutes for both the hit single and the first CD-release of the album, but the unedited version has since been restored on the 1988 greatest hits compilation, the 2004 reissue of Tusk and Fleetwood Mac's 2002 release of The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. Original guitarist Peter Green also took part in the sessions of Tusk although his playing, on the Christine McVie track "Brown Eyes", is not credited on the album.^[45] In an interview in 2019 Fleetwood described Tusk as his "personal favourite" and said, “Kudos to Lindsey ... for us not doing a replica of Rumours."^[46]

Tusk sold four million copies worldwide. Fleetwood blamed the album's relative lack of commercial success on the RKO radio chain having played the album in its entirety prior to release, thereby allowing mass home taping.^[47]

The band embarked on an 11-month tour to support and promote Tusk. They traveled across the world, including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Germany, they shared the bill with reggae superstar Bob Marley. On this world tour, the band recorded music for their first live album, which was released at the end of 1980.

The band's thirteenth studio album, Mirage, was released in 1982. Following 1981 solo albums by Nicks (Bella Donna), Fleetwood (The Visitor), and Buckingham (Law and Order), there was a return to a more conventional approach. Buckingham had been chided by critics, fellow band members and music business managers for the lesser commercial success of Tusk. Recorded at Château d'Hérouville in France and produced by Richard Dashut, Mirage was an attempt to recapture the huge success of Rumours. Its hits included Christine McVie's "Hold Me" and "Love in Store" (co-written by Robbie Patton and Jim Recor, respectively), Stevie Nicks's "Gypsy", and Lindsey Buckingham's "Oh Diane", which made the Top 10 in the UK. A minor hit was also scored by Buckingham's "Eyes Of The World" and "Can't Go Back".

In contrast to the Tusk Tour the band embarked on only a short tour of 18 American cities, the Los Angeles show being recorded and released on video. They also headlined the first US Festival, on 5 September 1982, for which the band was paid $500,000 ($1,298,103 today). Mirage was certified double platinum in the US.

Following Mirage the band went on hiatus, which allowed members to pursue solo careers. Stevie Nicks released two more solo albums (1983's The Wild Heart and 1985's Rock a Little). Lindsey Buckingham issued Go Insane in 1984, the same year that Christine McVie made an eponymous album (yielding the Top 10 hit "Got a Hold on Me" and the Top 40 hit "Love Will Show Us How"). All three met with success, Nicks being the most popular. During this period Mick Fleetwood had filed for