Rumours is the eleventh studio album by English-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 4 February 1977 by Warner Bros. Records. Largely recorded in California in 1976, it was produced by the band with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut. The band wanted to expand on the commercial success of their eponymous 1975 album, but struggled with relationship breakups before recording started.
The Rumours studio sessions were marked by interpersonal strife and hedonistic behaviour among all five band members: Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and John McVie. Which shaped the album’s lyrics. Recorded with the intention of making “a pop album”, the album’s music featured a pop rock and soft rock sound characterized by accented rhythms and electric keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes or Hammond B3 organ. The members partied and used cocaine for much of the recording sessions, and its completion was delayed by its mixing process, but was finished by the end of 1976.
Bill Clinton’s (January 1993) Inaugural Ball.
Following the album’s release, Fleetwood Mac undertook worldwide promotional tours. Rumours reached the top of both the US Billboard 200 and the United Kingdom Albums Chart, and became the band’s most successful release.
Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know
The songs “Go Your Own Way”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop”, and “You Make Loving Fun” were released as singles, all of which reached the US top 10. Having won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978, Rumours has since sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, and has received diamond certifications in several countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia.
“Songbird” was recorded live at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Auditorium.
The album garnered widespread acclaim from critics, with praise centred on its production quality and harmonies, which frequently relied on the interplay among three vocalists and has inspired the work of musical acts in different genres.
Classic Albums – A documentary series on several of the key albums in music history.
Witness the making of rock’s most epic albums with appearances from many of the legends themselves. Fleetwood Mac’s hugely successful “Rumours” was recorded in 1977. Directed by David Heffernan in 2006. This is the definitive story of the making of an album that has truly earned its place in the pantheon of rock music history.
We see the history of the band until that point, the internal struggles and the creativity involved. Included are interviews with all five band members: Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and John McVie. If you’re familiar with the Classic Albums series then you’ll know what to expect as members of the band, engineers and others associated with the album talk about every step of the creation process.
Pretty much they go through every song and talk about how it was written, the music added and how it took its place on the album. This here is another good episode, although there’s certainly a lot more bedroom talk than many of the other shows. This is to be expected since all the personal drama that was going on in the band really helped the album make it what it is.
The band members talk about the bad break-ups and how most people go away from one another when their relationships are over but they couldn’t do that because they were together for hours a day in the studio. We also get to hear the various sound mixes and how they were put together to create the final songs.
Classic albums – Fleetwood Mac – Rumours – CLICK HERE! Exclusive NPO START
