In 1974, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood in the moribund blues group, Fleetwood Mac. To then, the Mac had put out 9 albums, none of which cracked the top 20. There was magic in the new configuration. In 1975, they released Fleetwood Mac, with the single “Rhiannon,” and suddenly they had a #1 record -- and new life.

When the group gathered in February, 1976, to begin recording the follow up album, the expectations of the music industry and fans could hardly have been higher. Unfortunately, the group's psyches could hardly have been lower. The McVies had separated, and Christine had taken up with a lighting director. Buckingham and Nicks were also at war with one another. The McVies weren’t speaking to each other socially, limiting their conversations to music – same with Lindsey and Stevie. Mick Fleetwood had separated from his wife, Jenny Boyd (sister of Pattie Boyd – siren of George Harrison and Eric Clapton) and took comfort in Nicks’ arms.

In keeping with a theme we’ve noted in other great albums, sometimes an artist’s best work is born of pain and trauma, like a legendary performance from an ailing athlete. Rumours is another case in point. It delivers 11 meticulously crafted songs, most of them describing or alluding to the group’s personal and relationship issues. Rumours blends acoustic and electric instruments, covered by the quintet’s perfect harmonies.

It is astounding that such music should have come from recording sessions described by one of the studio’s owners as “excess at its most excessive.” The group would roll into the studio around 7 pm, feast on food, drink and copious amounts of recreational substances until 1 or 2 am. When sated, they would go to work and record through the night. Come morning, the women retired to separate condos on San Franciso Bay in Sausalito, and the guys sacked out in the Record Plant studio’s lodge.

The last day of recording Rumours

The album’s working title was Yesterday’s Gone, from “Don’t Stop.” After months of laying down the tracks for an album intended to contain no filler, every song a potential hit single, a meticulous mixing and overdub process began. Originally scheduled for release in September of 1976, Fleetwood Mac canceled a sold-out US tour to support the release because the record wasn’t finished. The record company had already received 800,000 advance orders, most in Warner Bros. history.

Rumours was finally released on Feb. 4, 1977. On April 2, it became the #1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, a spot it held for 31 weeks. The album’s 4 singles charted: “Dreams” #1, “Go Your Own Way” #3, “Don’t Stop” #3, and “You Make Loving Fun” #3. Rumours has now sold 40 million copies worldwide (tied for #7 all time), and is certified 2X Diamond (20 million) in the US, 11X Platinum (11 million) in the UK. It was the Grammy Album of the Year in 1978, and is #15 on Billboard’s list of the Greatest Albums of All Time.

This Fleetwood Mac lineup broke up when Buckingham and Nicks left the group in 1987. The Rumours quintet reconvened in 1997 for that year’s No. 1 live album The Dance and once more in 2014 for the On With the Show world tour. That trek continued through Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 2015. A new studio album is in the works – the first from this lineup since 1987’s Tango in the Night. A farewell world tour is being planned for 2017.

• Second Hand News
• Dreams
• Never Going Back Again
• Don't Stop
• Go Your Own Way
• Songbird
• The Chain
• You Make Loving Fun
• I Don't Want To Know
• Oh Daddy

Check out the albums Rumours beat for the Album of the Year Grammy in 1978.