Ramblin Round: Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" is back on-track

Jan. 14—With the recent domination of the best-selling music charts by Christmas songs now ended with the conclusion of the holidays, things are back to a more regular basis.

While a few weeks ago, artists such as Brenda Lee, Mariah Carey, Bobby Helms, Wham! and Burl Ives dominated the charts with their holiday offerings, there's now nary a holiday recording charting among them.

Take the Billboard Hot 200 albums, for example.

For the week of Jan. 13, 2024, it's dominated by four Taylor Swift albums, including the #1 spot with "1989 (Taylor's Version" — her rerecording of her original 2014 album, with additional tracks included.

Swift also locked down the #5 spot with "Midnights," the #6 position with "Lover" and #10, with "Folklore."

The artist coming closest to her on the charts is Morgan Wallen, with his album "One Thing At A Time" at #2.

Still, the inclusion of so many classic rock, pop, country and soul artists on the contemporary music during the Christmas holiday season got me to wondering. Would classic artists show up at all on the contemporary charts now that the holiday season is winding down?

I decided to check it out and found that indeed they are — only now they are not represented by Christmas songs but by more mainstream recordings.

Ranking highest among the classic artists for the second week of 2024 is Fleetwood Mac, whose album "Rumours" rose to #34 this week, up from #51 on last week's chart.

I'm not sure why "Rumours" is climbing back up the charts so many years after its original 1977 release.

Maybe it's because the band released "Rumours Live" in September, 2023.

In addition to songs from "Rumours," the new live album, recorded at the Los Angeles Forum on Aug. 29, 1977, also includes live performances of the album which preceded "Rumours," the self-titled "Fleetwood Mac."

"Rumours" is considered one of the biggest-ever rock albums and is already multi-platinum.

Following its original release, the album soon zoomed to #1 on both the U.S. and the UK charts.

That's fitting, since this version of Fleetwood Mac consisted of both British and American members.

As longtime fans of the band know, Fleetwood Mac originally started as a blues-based British band, with guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, Mick Fleetwood on drums, and bassist John McVie, who replaced the original bassist Bob Brunning soon after the band's first live performance.

One of the band's first hits in Britain came in the form of an etherel instrumental single, "Albatross." I would recommend that anyone who associates Fleetwood Mac solely with its lineup that came together in the latter half of the 1970s to give "Albatross" a listen.

It features Green on guitar, along with a new addition to the band, guitarist Danny Kirwan.

It features excellent use of the tremolo or whammy bar on Green's Fender Stratocaster and i think Kirwan is making a major contribution, too.

"Albatross" went all the way to #1 on the UK charts in 1969, and remains the only Fleetwood Mac song to top the charts in Britain.

I'ver had friends who were massive fans of Peter Green, both with Fleetwood Mac and later as a blues-oriented solo artist after he left the band — but who rarely listened to the group's most famous iteration, which came later.

While the American San Francisco-based group Santana had one of its biggest hits with the song "Black Magic Woman" from its 1970 "Abraxus" album, the song did not originate with the San Francisco-based group.

Written by Peter Green, the song had originally been released in Britain in 1968 by that earliest version of Fleetwood Mac, peaking at #37 on the UK charts.

When then-23 year old Carlos Santana revived "Black Magic Woman" for his band's second album,"Abraxus," the song went all the way to #4 on the U.S. charts.

Santana's version of "Black Magic Woman" featured the band's distinctive percussion ensemble, along with searing guitar solos from Carlos Santana, with Greg Rollie handling the lead vocal duties as well as playing organ.

After he left Santana, Rollie would go on to play with another famed San Francisco-based band, the ever-popular Journey.

Back in Britain, that original Fleetwood Mac went through a number of personnel changes after Green and Mick Fleetwood formed the group.

One version of the group included singer and guitarist Bob Welch. After Welch left Fleetwood Mac, he scored a number of solo hits in the later part of the 1970s, including "Ebony Eyes" and "Hypnotized."

Welch scored his biggest solo hit of all with "Sentimental Lady" — which hit #8 on the solo charts in 1978. He also recorded a hit album, "French Kiss," which featured "Sentimental Lady" on its track list.

Fleetwood Mac — which is derived from the last names of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie — went through many group lineups before settling on its most famous one.

It started to come together when British keyboardist and vocalist Christine Perfect of the band Chicken Shack joined the group. When she married the group's bassist, her name became Christine McVie.

More personnel issues resulted in two versions of Fleetwood Mac touring at one point, with an entirely new band put together by the band's then-manager to fulfill contractual obligations which toured as the New Fleetwood Mac.

While this was going on, drummer Mick Fleetwood made the move to California, where he heard some tracks by the duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

When they met in a recording studio, Fleetwood offered Buckingham a spot in the band. Buckingham accepted the offer on the condition that Nicks, his romantic as well as his musical partner at the time, could join the band, too.

Fleetwood accepted and just like that, the most well-known version of Fleetwood Mac came together, with the lineup of Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Buckingham and Nicks.

This lineup came into the consciousness of the music public when the band issued its 1975 album, the self-titled "Fleetwood Mac."

Some might think of it as the band's first album — and it is the first featuring the lineup that comes to mind when many think of the group's smash albums that began with 1975's "Fleetwood Mac" and 1977's "Rumours," the album that is still with us today.

Going all the way back to those first British albums with Peter Green, the 1975 album titled "Fleetwood Mac" is actually the 10th album recorded by Fleetwood Mac, with its many personnel changes.

"Fleetwood Mac" — the 1975 album — went to #1 in the U.S. and featured a number of the band's now classic songs, including Nick's "Rhiannon" as well as Christine McVie's "Say You Love Me."

"Rumours," coming two years later, proved even bigger — staying #1 on the U.S. album charts for an amazing 31 weeks. It also produced four Top Ten singles, including "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way," "You Make Loving Fun" and "Don't Stop."

It also includes songs that undoubtedly would have been hits if they had been released as singles, including "Gold Dust Woman" and "the Chain."

"Rumours" won the 1978 Grammy for Album of the Year and in 2017 the album was selected for preservation by the National Recording Registry.

Maybe it should not come as a surprise that "Rumours" is once again in Top 40 and climbing the charts of the Billboard Hot 200 at #34 with an arrow beside it indicating an upward trajectory.

After all, the songs — and the best albums — are timeless.