Christine McVie and Fleetwood Mac’s Legacy

Photo by Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

June 2019

It was a packed house at Wembley Stadium. My friend Karl and I climbed up to the nosebleeds, surrounded by overpriced beers in plastic cups and hot dogs. The stadium, which holds around 90,000 spectators, was filled to the brim. Everybody was in a good mood.

The band was celebrating its 50th anniversary tour. It had albums only a few years younger than my parents. The band members were in their 70s. Still, they’d managed to stage a sold-out concert to nearly 100,000 people, many of whom would not have even been born in their heyday. I was one of those fans. I was born over two decades after their most famous album came out.

Which band could have such a pull after fifty years? Who could bring out a mix of Baby Boomers, Millennials and everyone in between?

Why only Fleetwood Mac of course.

I was saddened to learn of the death of Christine McVie, one of the band’s most prominent and beloved members. She wrote some of Fleetwood Mac’s most enduring hits, such as Everywhere, Little Lies and Songbird. McVie had a beautiful voice and talent for the keyboard.

Her death, however, made me think of Fleetwood Mac’s enduring legacy. They continue to be an extremely popular band. With over 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify, three of their songs on Rolling Stone’s top 500 (their top spot being at #9) and regular play on TikTok, they’re a band for every generation. Fleetwood Mac isn’t just a band. It’s a musical entity.

Fleetwood Mac has seen a resurgence, especially amongst the younger generation. What is it about this long-lasting band that has made them so popular?

The History

Fleetwood Mac, I am informed, was not considered a cool band. When you watch the popular lineup of them on stage, you can kind of see it. It’s like random people were plucked from the stage, handed an instrument and told that they’re now a band.

Stevie Nicks looks like she owns a healing shop in San Francisco or Brighton. Christine McVie looks like a stern teacher. Mick Fleetwood looks like an old hippie at your local. John McVie looks like a Vietnam War protestor. Lindsey Buckingham looks like he stumbled out of Studio 54. It’s all so mismatched.

Their discography and tours tell a somewhat different story. Fleetwood Mac and Tango in the Night were popular albums, but 1977’s Rumours changed the game. It’s an album made in the midst of breakups, fallouts and personal woes. Each artist contributed with writing. There’s a mix of breakup anthems and beautiful love songs. Most notably, each singer on the album co-wrote The Chain, a song about working together against the odds. Rumours is one of the best-selling albums of all time and considered one of the best albums ever.

Fleetwood Mac enjoyed strength in the 70s but unofficially broke up by the late 80s. A one-off performance at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration (Don’t Stop was his campaign song) and live 1997 The Dance would see the most famous lineup join up once again.

The Resurgence

As a kid, I vaguely knew of Fleetwood Mac as a band my dad liked. My first real exposure to them was when Glee did a tribute to them in the Season 2 episode Rumours. Though not a patch on the original, Glee did a good job of bringing Fleetwood Mac to a new generation and mixing the songs with their storylines. They also covered Landslide in a separate episode, sung beautifully by Gwyneth Paltrow, Heather Morris and the late Naya Rivera.

Their hits still enjoyed some play in popular culture. The Chain was the theme tune to BBC’s Formula 1 coverage and used twice in 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2.

In 2018, a video of some American high schoolers dancing to Dreams brought the song back into the charts and public consciousness. It wasn’t until 2020 that the song really came back. A viral TikTok of a man named Nathan Apodaca skating through the streets, drinking Ocean Spray and miming the song saw it hitting the top of the download charts. It was copied by Mick Fleetwood and many others.

You see teens and people in their 50s mutually gushing over the band. Stevie Nicks has become somewhat of an icon for that indie kinda person. People talk about how their music relates to their life. There’s a genuine appreciation for their kookiness. It’s now universally understood just how good they are, from moving ballads to rock-heavy tunes.

The drama also helps. Let’s face it, it’s a bit boring when bands get along. Fleetwood Mac practically invented drama. Rumours was born from it. John and Christine McVie were married for eight years. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were on-and-off for nearly a decade. Mick Fleetwood married the same woman twice, who would have an affair with fellow band member Bob Weston. There was so much scandal. It was a bubble of lust, cheating and broken hearts. Looking back, it’s quite remarkable how they sing along with the people they wrote angry songs about. Heck, it’s remarkable no one actually killed anyone else.

With a varied lineup, plenty of former members and an unhip reputation, it’s understandable if Fleetwood Mac was written off as a boring dad band. Instead, their ingenuity, personality and lyrics have been loved across the decades. Concerts are sold out in minutes. I was lucky enough to actually get tickets. They’re continually played on the radio, TV music stations and streaming services.

As we remember the talented Christine McVie, let’s also pause to think about the band that she was so instrumental in making it big.

For you, there’ll be no more crying
For you, the sun will be shining