Fleetwood Mac Songs That Don't Stop Adding to the Band's Success

These are the songs that propelled Fleetwood Mac into the stratosphere.

Fleetwood Mac Songs That Don't Stop Adding to the Band's Success

Fleetwood Mac began as a blues-infused rock band in 1967, but it wasn't until the mid-1970s when Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined that they became rock legends.

Fleetwood Mac has sold 120 million albums worldwide (and counting), and their success has given them a collective net worth of $480 million.

The Chain

Year released: 1977

Album: Rumours

Bottom line: Most of the songs on "Rumours" reflect the fracturing of the band members' relationships. "The Chain" is one such example.

Different studio tracks were pieced together to complete the song, but the lyrics are all Stevie Nicks, who wrote them about Lindsey Buckingham as they were splitting up.

Nicks and Buckingham share lead vocals on the song, the only one credited to all five members.

Sara

Year released: 1979

Album: Tusk

Bottom line: "Sara," written and sung by Stevie Nicks, peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard singles chart in 1979.

The song was, in part, written about Nicks' romance with drummer Mick Fleetwood after she and Buckingham broke up. Her friend, Sara, married Fleetwood, effectively ending their romantic relationship.

Nicks' former boyfriend Eagles member Don Henley also claimed that the song is an ode to their unborn child. Nicks said, "Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara."

Over My Head

Year released: 1975

Album: Fleetwood Mac

Bottom line: Christine McVie penned and sang this 1975 track off of the band's self-titled album.

The song was not written from McVie's own experience (she was married to John McVie at the time), but it does tell the tale of having a relationship with a man whose moods turn on a dime, and a woman whose heart overrules her head.

While the band had been together since 1967 (with different members, except John McVie and Mick Fleetwood), this was the first Fleetwood Mac song to chart in the U.S.

Big Love

Year released: 1987

Album: Tango in the Night

Bottom line: Lindsey Buckingham wrote and performed "Big Love." It was originally for a solo album as the group had parted ways by 1985, but Christine McVie convinced band members to give things another go.

During the sessions, however, Buckingham and Nicks were not getting along. She was mostly absent from the recording, and he left the band again soon after. However, the song went to No. 5 and jump-started the band's career in the late 1980s.

It was not played live until a decade later.

Little Lies

Year released: 1987

Album: Tango in the Night

Bottom line: The third single from "Tango in the Night," McVie penned the song with then-husband, Eddy Quintela.

When it was released, it went to the top position on the Billboard Adult Contemporary for four weeks and is the band's most recent hit.

Teen icon Hillary Duff also recorded a version of the song in 2016.

Tusk

Year released: 1979

Album: Tusk

Bottom line: Recorded with the USC Trojan Marching Band (who recorded their part in Dodger Stadium in 1979 — each marching band member received a dollar for their effort), this unusual single was a departure for the band. It was based off on a Lindsey Buckingham riff used during soundchecks.

The song was the first single from the album of the same name. It reached No. 8 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

Say You Love Me

Year released: 1975

Album: Fleetwood Mac

Bottom line: Another Christine McVie penned classic, "Say You Love Me" was one of the first the new incarnation of the band (with the addition of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks) rehearsed together.

Peaking at No. 11 for three weeks on the Billboard charts, it helped the album, which sold 8 million copies, hit the top of the charts in the U.S., and further cemented the band's reputation as rock icons.

You Make Loving Fun

Year released: 1977

Album: Rumours

Bottom line: This Christine McVie song is the fourth single from "Rumours."

During the album's recording, her marriage to bassist John McVie was ending, and she started seeing the band's lighting technician, Curry Grant, which is who the song is about. (Her ex assumed it was about their dogs.)

The song peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hold Me

Year released: 1982

Album: Mirage

Bottom line: Christine McVie didn't typically write songs about her personal relationships, but "Hold Me" was an exception.

The song, co-written with singer/songwriter Robbie Patton, was inspired by her relationship Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. They had broken up a little before it was written, and he died in a tragic drowning accident a year after its release.

"Hold Me" became one of the band's biggest hits in the U.S., peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard charts for seven weeks.

Landslide

Year released: 1975

Album: Fleetwood Mac

Bottom line: Stevie Nicks wrote this classic when she was in her early 20s and still with Lindsey Buckingham, but they were already having problems, as they were not yet successful in music. She wondered if she should stay or go back to school and get a normal job.

When "Landslide" was released as a single in 1975, it wasn't a huge hit, but it has since become one of the band's signature songs.

Smashing Pumpkins, Tori Amos, and the Dixie Chicks have all covered it.

Gypsy

Year released: 1982

Album: Mirage

Bottom line: This Stevie Nicks song was written as a tribute to her closest friend Robin Snyder Anderson, who died of cancer a year or so before it was released. In it, she also waxes nostalgic about her days before fame and her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham.

The video for the song was picked to be MTV's first-ever "world premiere" of a music video, and it reached No. 12 on the U.S. charts.

Rhiannon

Year released: 1977

Album: Rumours

Bottom line: In concert, Stevie Nicks would introduce Rhiannon as "a song about a Welsh witch." The idea for it came from "Triad," a novel by Mary Bartlet Leader about a woman possessed by a witch named Rhiannon.

The song peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard charts in 1976 and has been voted one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" by "Rolling Stone" magazine.

Don’t Stop

Year released: 1977

Album: Rumours

Bottom line: "Don't Stop" is Christine McVie's ode to looking toward the future after her divorce from John McVie. The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, when it was released as a single in 1977.

But it took on new meaning — and more in sales — when Bill Clinton became president. The band was all but broken up when he won, but he was able to get Fleetwood Mac to perform "Don't Stop" at the 1993 inaugural gala, essentially jump-starting the band's next chapter.

Go Your Own Way

Year released: 1976

Album: Rumours

Bottom line: "Go Your Own Way" was written by Lindsey Buckingham to soon-to-be ex-girlfriend Stevie Nicks, describing their impending breakup and was the first single from "Rumours."

Its pre-sale orders, at 800,000, were the largest in Warner Brothers' history at that time and helped "Rumours" reach 40 million units sold.

Dreams

Year released: 1977

Album: Rumours

Bottom line: "Dreams" was the second single from "Rumours" and the band's biggest hit to date. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed there for 31 weeks.

The song was written and sung by Stevie Nicks as an answer to Lindsey Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way" as they were in the process of breaking up.

It has repeated its chart success several times since its release, most recently in October 2020, when TikToker Nathan Apodaca lip-synced to it while skateboarding and drinking cran-raspberry juice.