In another news, Over the course of five 1971-74 releases, she grew as an artistic force in the band as a songwriter and lead vocalist, but the band was largely viewed as a journeyman act, forgotten in its country of origin and modestly successful in the U.S. (where it would ultimately take up residence in the late ‘70s).
However, after the arrival of the American duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in the band on New Year’s Eve 1974, Fleetwood Mac underwent a transformation and became a pop music juggernaut. Singer-songwriter-keyboardist McVie took an important role in its multi-platinum efforts, with her warmth and gravitas balancing the contributions of her younger new bandmates.
The New York Times’ critic Jon Pareles wrote in a 2014 review, “Ms. McVie was the more levelheaded, kindly voice alongside the band’s other two songwriters: Ms. Nicks — sometimes dreamy, sometimes vindictive — and the guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who tucked angry, wounded lyrics into virtuosic guitar parts….Ms. McVie’s demure alto bound together the group’s vocal harmonies; her songs promised that loyal affection was still possible.”
In the early days of the band’s chart dominance, McVie’s voice was usually the one listeners heard coming out of their radios: She wrote and sang two of its breakthrough pop hits from its self-titled 1975 Reprise album, “Over My Head” (No. 20) and “Say You Love Me” (No. 11). With even its deepest cuts gaining traction at album rock radio, the LP climbed to No. 1 and was certified for sales of five million.
As “Fleetwood Mac” was lofted up the charts, the band experienced all the excesses and tensions that sudden fame, great wealth, huge industry leverage and skyrocketing label expectations can bring to a rock group, and the completion of the album’s immensely popular successor “Rumours” (1977) seems miraculous in hindsight.
In the early days of the band’s chart dominance, McVie’s voice was usually the one listeners heard coming out of their radios: She wrote and sang two of its breakthrough pop hits from its self-titled 1975 Reprise album, “Over My Head” (No. 20) and “Say You Love Me” (No. 11). With even its deepest cuts gaining traction at album rock radio, the LP climbed to No. 1 and was certified for sales of five million.
As “Fleetwood Mac” was lofted up the charts, the band experienced all the excesses and tensions that sudden fame, great wealth, huge industry leverage and skyrocketing label expectations can bring to a rock group, and the completion of the album’s immensely popular successor “Rumours” (1977) seems miraculous in hindsight.
Writer Dave DiMartino noted in an expanded 2004 edition of the album, “…[T]he most phenomenal aspect of ‘Rumours’ is twofold: 1) It is an extraordinarily good, rich album featuring a superb rock ‘n’ roll band at their very best; 2) in retrospect, it’s remarkable that it was even made in the first place. One of only a handful of records that seamless blend real-life experience and art, the album that defined an era for so many people was an emotionally harrowing affair for each of the band members who made it.”
Buckingham and Nicks’ personal relationship and the McVies’ marriage both disintegrated (the latter owing to Christine’s affair with the group’s lighting director) during the run-up to the release of “Rumours,” but the group translated the friction into a universally embraced song cycle about romantic dissolution. The album shifted more than 19 million copies in the U.S; Christine McVie accounted for the collection’s two sunniest hits, “Don’t Stop” (No. 3) and “You Make Loving Fun” (No. 9). “Rumours” received a Grammy as album of the year in 1978.
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