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Look Back:
Fleetwood Mac Release Debut Album 43 Years Ago
(RTTNews) - Fleetwood Mac burst onto the U.K. rock scene with the release of their self-titled debut on February 24, 1968.
At that time, the band was a straight-ahead blues act, with a significantly different lineup than the group that would later become one of the best-selling acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Long before the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who would become key songwriters during the band's "Rumours" period, their debut album featured a mix of blues covers and originals co-written by the fronting guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. Green had teamed with drummer Mick Fleetwood in 1967 after splitting from the more established John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
Green, Spencer and Fleetwood initially pushed hard to recruit Bluesbreakers bassist John McVie and even named the group Fleetwood Mac in an attempt to draw him in. It was only after the band made their debut at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival in August of 1967 that McVie agreed to join.
The debut effort, sometimes called the Dog and Dustbin album due to the picture on the cover, propelled Fleetwood Mac to nearly overnight stardom in the U.K. It reached number four on the U.K. chart, though it made little impact in the U.S. The band followed up with the release of two singles, "Black Magic Woman" and "Need Your Love So Bad."