Happy Birthday Rumours!!

[seekerj]

Originally Posted by Nikolaj

I remember it well. I was a pre-teen (ok, dangit, I was very close to 13, but technically not a teenager 'til the summer!) Well, anyway, the handful or less of stores that sold albums in CT, could not keep 'Rumours' in stock. I'd get a ride every other day or so to record outlets, and back then the albums were stocked alphabetically by artist/group, and also with a wall of 'Top 50' albums- and 'Rumours' was in the #1 slot in the stores charts (not Billboard, but the stores had their own weekly charts), and the #1 slot would be empty...Under 'Fleetwood Mac' there would be no 'Rumours'...(I recall the dept. stores that sold albums were Caldor, Bradlees, and Sears nearby where my parents lived)-- and I'd ask the clerks, after school, to hear 'we got some in this morning but they were gone by noon'-- 'we might get another shipment on Thursday, and normally we only get shipments once a week'--- this was Connecticut, and it wasn't able to be kept in stock. I remember reading this was a problem throughout all of the United States, the albums couldn't be manufactured fast enough to meet sales demand!
I think I got the album in March, finally, older friends of my sister and cousins had the 8track in their cars, so I'd heard it, plus 'Silver Springs' and 'The Chain' were all over FM radio from the start, along with 'Dreams' and 'Go Your Own Way' and 'Gold Dust Woman' also got FM play right away).-- "Silver Springs' actually got heavy airplay in late '76 when it was on the flip of 'Go Your Own Way', released a few months before 'Rumours' came out--
It's a largely forgotten fact that Warner Brothers "literally" (an over-used word if ever one existed, but in this case, the right word) could not print the albums fast enough and before long the label decided to hire other manufacturing facilities, or record labels, to print up more copies because it was selling so fast. I'm sure someone will know the exact wording, because I'm not saying it exactly right, but it was like all of Warner Bros. plants were working round the clock to print the album sleeves, inserts and mass-produce the vinyl, and still couldn't keep up with the demand, so they went to another source for help, say RSO or RCA or some competitor that they paid to help fill the orders. This fact has been documented in books and articles should anyone want to try to look it up... But that tells all those too young to really know, how huge the album was, which they may know, but it might be unknown that from February into the spring of 1977, the album was really hard to come by!

I'm so glad someone else remembers this!! (I am from Connecticut, too.) I just wrote the same thing in the "Silver Springs" thread.