Tango In The Night - Which Songs Include Stevie?
 

What Tango In The Night songs include Stevie?

In addition to her three original songs, I hear her on "Little Lies" and on "Family Man" (Wikipedia doesn't credit her, but I hear her around the 2-1/2 minute mark).

Wikipedia credits her with singing on the extended remix (but not on the album mix) of "Big Love" and with synthesizer and singing on "Everywhere" (I don't hear her voice, and for the life of me can't see why they would have her play synthesizer on one of Christine's songs).

The tour DVD demonstrates she would ideally be on "Isn't It Midnight" singing a "face of a pretty girl" counter vocal, but I don't hear her on the album version of that song either.

This is a tough question to answer because the debate about "where is Stevie on Tango" has been raging with numerous other threads. Some claim they can hear Stevie on Everywhere while others say no. Lindsey mentioned how hard Tango was to create with the dysfunction of the band. Stevie did a quick Seven Wonders before checking into Betty Ford. When she left Betty Ford, she only attended a few more recording sessions. Lindsey is not specific but claims he had to work her voice in on parts. Which parts? Good question. If you listen closely, Stevie is not on the chorus of Little Lies. She only sings "tell me lies." We all want to know how creative Lindsey was during this process. Were these words Lindsey programmed together? Probably a stretch but its anyone's guess. Its clear to me that her voice is layered in on Family Man. So, IMHO Stevie is on her 3 songs, layered in on Family Man, and Little Lies is the wild card. For the record, there are even some that claim its not Stevie on Family Man but it's Lindsey being creative (again).
Lindsey needs to write a book.

At around the 2-1/2 minute mark of "Family Man," at least to my ear, she's also doing a brief vocal turn all on her own – not something that could be faked as it is her voice distinctly.

So far, it sounds like she's on just five or six songs out of the twelve (which would make about half the album the same lineup as Buckingham McVie.)

Still eager to hear from others as to what they know/hear on this front.

I'd go along with Macfan4life. I'll give Little Lies but I'm one of those people who is convinced she is definitely not on Everywhere. She sounds like the 'I am what I am what I am what I am what I am...' etc on Family Man. However I concur there's a chance that could be Lindsey's creative trickery. I don't think she's on any other non-Stevie songs.

My Summary of her contribution relating to Tango:

Album Cuts:
When I See You Again
Seven Wonders
Welcome to the Room... Sara
Little Lies
Family Man: She's the one going "am whadda am, am whadda am, etc" around the 2:30 mark, low in the mix with lots of distortion. You could make the case that it's Lindsey doing vocal tricks, but the same sample is played in the extended version around the 5:00 mark. Here it is slowed down, high in the mix, and clearly Stevie. She is also present on the chorus in this version.

I do not hear her on any of the other songs, including Everywhere. She may indeed be there, buried in the mix, but I cannot for the life of me hear her.

Alternate Versions:
1. Family Man: Much more prominent, see above. She also squeals a lot and talks about "mother father, sister," "I can't let go" on the Extended guitar mix around the 5:30 mix. Very RAL, i.e. erratic and drunk sounding. She is present on the chorus of this version as well.
2. Big Love: She is yelling "house up on the hill!" in the extended version, around 4:10. In the "House on the Hill Dub" mix, she is also yelling... something, "pretty girl" maybe? This starts around 1:10, and then concludes with "looking out for love" just afterwards. Somewhere in these tracks is also a vocal sample that has her yelling "Well it's a big, big love" These are likely the backing vocals she recorded for the album track that Lindsey stripped out before release. Understandable as they don't flow with the slick nature of the song.
3. Little Lies: She's more prominent. At the end she sings "Tell me lies, OH, sweet little lies, no no you can't disguise", "oohs" and repeats "sweet lies, little lies", also likely leftover vocals from her sessions that Lindsey chose not to use in the final.

So we at least have some evidence of her vocal sessions on other songs, they were used in the extended cuts instead. A user on this board (FannyMac) claims to have interned with Modern Records, Stevie's solo label, and heard an early cut of the album where her vocals were "All over it" before it was stripped to "just two songs", and then her third song was added back and her Little Lies backing vocal was reinserted.

Live:
Isn't It Midnight: The 1987-1988 and 1990 tours have her on the chorus, with an additional solo bit following the first chorus where she repeats "The face of a pretty girl" and a new closing vocal where she leads some "Welllllll Isn't it midnight"s with the others. This may be similar to how she recorded backing vocals for the album song before they were stripped, but there's no evidence of this because she is not present on any demo or alternate version.
Everywhere: The 1987-1988 and 1990 tours have her yelling "I WANNA BE WITH YOU" like an obnoxious chipmunk before she and Christine deliver the chorus. It's possible this was similar to the backing vocal she recorded for the album that she was so pissed about being removed. It's impossible to tell since it is not found on any demos or alternate versions of the song.
Big Love: She did backing vocals on the chorus for a 1998 live performance on Letterman with Lindsey.

As for Lindsey's vocal trickery, that is most promiently on display with Caroline. There's a version of the song which isolates the backing vocals (usually listed as a demo) which reveals that they belong to Lindsey with pitch increase. This pitch increase sounds a *bit* like it could be Stevie+Christine on the album, but alone it is clearly Lindsey.

I do not see any sign of her on Caroline, You and I, Ricky, Down Endless Street, Mystified, and Tango in the Night (in any version).

Songs she produced with her band that were considered for Tango but were not seriously demoed with the Mac:
What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You?- Mick Fleetwood's book
At the Fair- No evidence to corroborate this, but it is often found on Tango compilations.

Songs she demoed for Tango that were played by the Mac but were not used:
Joan of Arc- Not included on the expanded album because Stevie claims that she is "not done with it"
Ooh My Love: Later on OSOTM in a different arrangement
Juliet (completed instrumental in "Book of Miracles",s the "Seven Wonders" b-side). Later on OSOTM in a different arrangement.

Many of us heard Stevie on the Buckingham/McVie album. Of course she is not on the album but Lindsey has a way of backing vocals that our brain thinks is Stevie.

Thanks, Netter75, for all this detail.

It amazes me that with songs like "Candlebright" "Sorcerer" "The Dealer" "Planets Of The Universe" and "Smile At You" available, they still went with something as awful as "Welcome To The Room Sara" (maybe Stevie insisted on its inclusion). "When I See You Again" is also worse than the above songs, but not nearly so bad as "Welcome To The Room" (which really prevents the album from being able to claim masterpiece status).

While we're on the subject of Tango, what does everyone think of the following?: Is Christine absent (neither playing nor singing) from any songs on the album – such as, but not limited to, "Tango In The Night" and "Caroline"?

I admire when groups don't divvy up the songs politically, but just go with the best material without regard to how many songs come from each songwriter.

Bob Weir has no songs on the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead. David Crosby has just one song on CSN's Daylight Again. Jeremy Spencer has no songs on Then Play On.

If the group for whatever reason was refusing to consider songs five years or older, then it should have limited Stevie's contribution to "Seven Wonders."

All of Stevie's contributions on Tango were recently written songs. I suppose she wanted to deliver something fresh to the band. When I see you again was sent to the band early on when Stevie was on the RAL tour. There was not much time after Stevie rejoined the band to explore and spend time on her songs. I suppose Welcome to the room Sara was big on her mind at the time. No doubt some of her classic songs like Running Through The Garden and Smile At You would have tremendously helped out the album. While Christine contributed some ace songs, I miss her playing. That is one reason I like Behind the Mask better than Tango. I love the way Christine plays keyboards. Just the opening of Skies the Limit gives me chills.
According to Mick's first book Stevie brought What has rock n roll ever done for you but the band picked When I see you again instead. I laugh because I bet Lindsey hated What has rock n roll ever done for you. Its a very arrogant (but fun) song.

You're right. They didn't have her do a lot of more-or-less traditional playing, other than synth pads (Seven Wonders) and DX7 tines (Little Lies). They should have found a place on the album for Where We Belong—I was going back and forth between "Is that a guitar?" or "Is that a keyboard?" I decided it was keyboard, and it's Christine doing it, whatever she's playing it on.

She also plays her DX7 on Mystified, but much of the atmosphere on the album is probably Lindsey and his workstation—sampling, looping, DFX, etc.

Is it Lindsey and not Christine on keyboards on Tango In The Night?

That would mean there are several songs (or maybe just two?) that have neither Stevie nor Christine.

Lindsey has said in interviews that sometimes personal resentment caused him not to want to help Stevie put her best foot forward. I wonder whether that impulse got the better of him on Tango.

He could perhaps have insisted on using better older material of hers, but instead let two weak songs go on the album. That did not serve Stevie or the band well.

I also want to thank Netter75 for his descriptive post. Very helpful.

I agree, it's crazy to think the band chose those songs by Stevie over the ones you mentioned, but I'm sure they were looking at the future and not the past. Planets of the Universe is one of my favorite Stevie/FM songs, and it's inclusion would have been fabulous. However, I remember an interview where Stevie said she played the recorded version of Planets of the Universe for Lindsey, and that he praised the producer, saying he could never figure out what to do with the song. I have no idea if that's true, but if it is, that might explain why Planets never made it on a FM album.

When this has come up before, I've made a case for her appearing on the title track. I'm not 100% convinced by my own argument, though.

I am willing to say with extreme confidence that Stevie is not playing any of the synth parts on Everywhere. She was barely there to record a coherent vocal in 1987 let alone lay down synth parts on a song she did not write.

If you look at the personnel credits on Wiki for Tango in the Night, Say You Will, EP and Buckingham McVie they are increasingly Buckingham studio craft pieces that went beyond producing and arranging to actually playing and programming lots of the parts himself. This may have been a point of consternation for the band during the production of these albums, but maybe not? Although I believe he is the principal architect of the band's gorgeous ersatz symphonic sound, sometimes the architect has to know that the mason lays better brick than he himself would.

This is a great article on Tango and the building of that album.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...eluxe-edition/

In Tango's case I think the physical and mental condition of the other band members forced his hand with many of these choices.

Prior to the release of Tango Stevie “threatened” that she couldn’t/wouldn’t do press on the album if she couldn’t “hear her on the album”. These are the tracks I believe she is on in addition to her songs ( some deeper in the mix like Lindsey has done with her vocals on the prior albums)

Everywhere
Mystified
Family Man
Little Lies

So it seems, at least so far, the only songs where we can identify Stevie's presence beyond the almost (or totally) imperceptible are her own three songs, "Little Lies," and "Family Man."

I must say, Lindsey would have been wrong to leave her off "Little Lies." She improves it.

It's a question that probably needs to be qualified by statements he made to Jim Ladd and others in the Eighties. "Often what sounds like a keyboard part is actually me playing a plectrum-style instrument and modifying it somehow on the mixing board."

It isn't necessarily that Lindsey is playing Christine's piano and electric piano on their Eighties albums. It's that he's playing at least some of them on a guitar, a dobro, a mandolin, a ukulele or probably even a stand-up bass, and then running the tape through a modified amplifier or a loop or turning weird knobs on the board or feeding everything through a sampler or whatever he did as part of his "painting."

It's very difficult for me to tell, but take a track like Straight Back. I think there are two actual keyboard tracks: a B3 and a Yamaha CP30. The rest of that wash of sound that seems initially very keyboardy is probably done with guitars.

John Run-THANK YOU-that Pitchfork review is brilliant! I just spent a lot of time reading that PLUS all their other FM reviews that are linked at the bottom. Very worthwhile reads & I would highly recommend them to everyone here!
Ricoh

The funny thing is when Everywhere came out, I thought I naturally heard Stevie. I never thought much about it until Lindsey's comments. Then I listen to the song and don't hear her. Was I tricked? Did I assume? Who knows.

I will go to my grave with two strongly held beliefs about Stevie's work on the "Tango" album:

1. Stevie Nicks sings the weird "amwhatIamwhatIam..." part on "Family Man"

2. Stevie Nicks is NOT in the background vocal mix for "Everywhere" despite what Mick Fleetwood's ghostwritten book says.

Stevie is NOT on Family Man

I'd swear that's her on the weird "amwhatIam" part. That is all.

you'd be wrong.

Not on the album version but she's def. on the 12 inch remix version.

Correct. It's Lindsey using a VSO. He has an uncanny ability to make his voice sound just like hers.

It wouldn't be the first time.

Oh wait, yes, it would.;)

It doesn't smell like goat breath during Family Man. :lol:

Not on the album version of "Family Man" yet IS on the 12" version, and sounds the same? Why would they go through the trouble.

I believe Stevie Nicks IS on the album track. Everyone can believe what they like, nobody knows for sure until we see Lindsey or Stevie actually put that on paper.

OMG You guys are freaking me out. I always assumed it was Stevie on Family Man too. Now that I listen, I would vote no. Its subtle but when the part in question begins, you can clearly hear its Lindsey and changing his voice. But the voice transitions into a Stevie sounding sound/voice. This is why its confuses people. I also think he did this on purpose to make it sound like Stevie thus his interview on his tricks or layering, whatever you want to call it. If it was Stevie, the part would be very dramatic and obvious from the very beginning IMHO. After all these years I think I may have been wrong. Gosh, this would have been the PERFECT question to ask Lindsey at the meet and greet. Can someone ask this.

Edit: The Wikipedia page for Family Man does not credit Stevie for any contributions. Lindsey is the credit for all backing vocals.

Personnel
Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion
John McVie – bass guitar
Christine McVie – keyboards
Lindsey Buckingham – guitars, Fairlight CMI, drum and percussion programming, lead and backing vocals

Are you guys aware the 12 inch remix of Family Man was released long after LB had left FM for good? Stevie sang on the remix.

Very interesting article, thanks for sharing this. I also found it interesting that the articles points out Lindsey left the band after dates were secured and contracts signed for the tour... so many people on a different thread said that was not the case, it this article states very clearly that was the case. Like I said, very interesting.

It says the band signed on for the tour, but doesn't speak to whether Lindsey himself signed anything.

So is that riff at the beginning of (and throughout) "Seven Wonders" actually played on a stringed instrument, even though it sounds like it's from a synthesizer?

I don't hear her at all on Mystified. Some people say she isn't on Everywhere, despite what Mick says, but I believe she is, at least in the last line of the chorus.

Yes--she picked up her involvement later on, both in tour rehearsals and in new vocal arrangements for the Tango songs. Her live contribution to "Isn't It Midnight" is incredible and I wish it were on the record.

No, I think that's a synthesizer, possibly a DX7 (which Christine is shown playing in the Big Love video).

Here's a video of the DX7 factory patches. The band probably would have fed any of these through some additional editing tools (possibly even sampled them into the Fairlight or a Prophet).

You might hear some synthy sounds on Isn't It Midnight or You and I that are triggered by a guitar—for example, the twinkly riff in the upper register that permeates that latter track (I always thought it was too prominent in the final mix because it kind of makes your ears wince).

I didn't remember that, thanks, Viv. But it's my understanding that all the tracks you would hear on a remix like that were laid down on some reel somewhere during the album recording sessions. Can anyone confirm? When Jellybean Benitez or someone else comes along and creates a club or dance remix, he doesn't bring members of the band back in to record anything new. He gets hold of the masters and recombines them (at most, he adds a rhythm track to make it suitable for clubs). Stevie's vocals that we hear on a remix were more than likely recorded at Lindsey's helm, just not used by him for the album.

That would be true, I would think, for Stevie's dance and club remixes of Stand Back and Planets of the Universe and Long Way to Go. We hear her singing stuff that we don't hear on the album cuts. But those are parts she originally did sing—but the producer or engineer faded before she got there or took it out of the final mix.

Yep, that's the norm, though I've always wondered if Stevie was a special case in this situation, given her lack of involvement with Tango, and the band possibly wanting to beef up her perceived presence in the wake of Lindsey leaving.

I think there is a good chance she is deep in the mix. I hear her.......but I know how Lindsey plays with the vocals but I want to believe it is Stevie.