5th Single from Rumours

[David]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Since the album was on the charts for a year maybe they feared Fleetwood Mac burn out from radio stations?

I think that’s exactly what Warner Bros. was trying to avoid. Billboard ran a lot of business articles about Mac that year and the next and included a bunch of quotes from both label guys and radio guys. They were all trying to avoid “saturating the market.” The talk was that “Second Hand News” was going to be a fifth single. But in the seventies, I guess four singles from a single-disc studio album was just about the max. I don’t think even the Beatles ever released five singles. (Hotel California only had three official singles.) Plus, in Mac’s case — and I can vouch for this in Southern CA radio markets — all the singles were still in pretty heavy rotation for two years, so the suits may have felt that there was no business need to push a fifth, which would involve marketing and sales expense. An album that spends 31 weeks at no. 1 is sui generis — it’s raking in millions without having to spend any more money on it. So why spend? Why buy display ads? Why pay radio stations to play what they’re already playing? Why manufacture another 45?

[David]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

As much as I love THE QUEEN of FM, WW sounds so dated. I love playing keys along with it, but I require a Sugar Daddy infusion when I return from my WW coma.

I was just playing WW on my Casio over the weekend, messing around with various tempos. A user created a Pianet patch for uploading to my Casio model, so I use that with a dose of tremolo. We do have that little bit of WW in rehearsal from early in 1975, but it seems the band may not have actually played it out live. It does sound dated, but it’s a well-crafted little ditty. With certain pop songs, you can tell immediately that they were composed by a piano player (walking bass lines, seconds and ninths, pretty little inverted chords, etc.), and WW is one of them. It’s a Christine specialty that comes straight out of the piano world to start her song on a dominant or subdominant rather than on the root, as she does here (and most famously starts her first verse vocal on the seventh). In WW, the first chord (aside from the intro) is dominant, which doesn’t resolve to the root for two bars. Lindsey on his guitar just wouldn’t do that (but watch someone find an exception right now).

I think composing on a guitar gives you a wider array of rhythms and textures, but a keyboard expands your options for chord structure and even modulation within the song. You can make unconventional choices and assimilate them into the song more smoothly than on a guitar.

[David]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

Thanks for the info.
So it was riding high at the start of october. They’re prepping for the support of their new album with a single being readied for imminent release. Probably no opportunity or need for a further release from Fleetwood Mac album at that stage.

Remember that Rumours was late. I think Warner was still expecting to be able to release the new album by the end of the year at that point. So they may have thought, why push a new single from last year’s album when we’re about to push the first single from the new album? I bet they were expecting they could release “Go Your Own Way” in October or November.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

I believe you misspelled GOAT.

Ha haaa... I didn't see that coming.

[David]

Originally Posted by Villavic

Thriller had 7 singles. Bad had 8 singles (I guess 9 in UK). Rumours could have far more than 4 singles.

Different time. Different industry practices. Rumours had four singles, Hotel California had three singles, Dark Side of the Moon had one big US single (it’s not quite clear), the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack had four singles, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road had four singles, the Grease soundtrack had two singles, Spirits Having Flown had three singles, and so on. Several of those were two-disc sets, too. Releasing a fifth single for Rumours was just not going to happen (although it was discussed).

Michael Jackson’s incredible album Off the Wall (1979) may have been the first pop album to release five singles. You know, Michael Jackson was making his own rules and transforming the industry even before Thriller.

PSA: If you haven’t listened to Off the Wall in years, give it another spin. It is f*cking amazing, truly one of the greatest albums of all time.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by David

Michael Jackson’s incredible album Off the Wall (1979) may have been the first pop album to release five singles. You know, Michael Jackson was making his own rules and transforming the industry even before Thriller.

PSA: If you haven’t listened to Off the Wall in years, give it another spin. It is f*cking amazing, truly one of the greatest albums of all time.

I love Off the Wall!!! OTW and Thriller are my favorite MJ albums. I liked Bad but nothing compares to those two albums!

[David]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I love Off the Wall!!! OTW and Thriller are my favorite MJ albums. I liked Bad but nothing compares to those two albums!

I’m listening to it right now, Villavic, and dancing in my office at work! Asian coworkers are walking by, wondering why David is trying to moonwalk.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

As much as I love THE QUEEN of FM, WW sounds so dated. I love playing keys along with it, but I require a Sugar Daddy infusion when I return from my WW coma.

In fairness, Prove Your Love and Come a Little Bit Closer sound just as dated. And ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Captain and Tenille’s Muskrat Love do, too. WW may reek of seventies easy listening, but it’s a clean, well-arranged song. It exists comfortably in the time and place where it emerged. But—

and I entirely agree with you—

Sugar Daddy blows it away.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

and I entirely agree with you—

Sugar Daddy blows it away.

Sugar Daddy is the second greatest FM song of all time.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

Sugar Daddy is the second greatest FM song of all time.

and now... you can be my friend.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

and now... you can be my friend.

After all these years? Thanks?

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

After all these years? Thanks?

It's a Big Big Love...

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

It's a Big Big Love...

That's what she said.

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

It's a Big Big Love...

Are you quoting the new Belinda Carlisle song LOL

I saw her in concert last month and she mentioned working with Lindsey Buckingham.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Are you quoting the new Belinda Carlisle song LOL

I saw her in concert last month and she mentioned working with Lindsey Buckingham.

ooooooo ahhhhhh ooooooooooooo ahhhhhhhhhhhh