Happy Birthday to Stevie's greatest album

[The Highwayman]

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Bella Donna, my favorite Fleetwood Mac-related album. To me, it's a flawless record, and something that was obviously long in coming for Stevie since she always had a backlog of great songs while only having 3 or so songs per FM album. Had she never started a solo career to go hand in hand with her career with the band, it's entirely possible she would've left the band a lot earlier. Thank god for Bella Donna.

Stevie's songs that she was cutting for the album were all so consistently strong, she didn't even need 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around', but for commercial purposes. But she wanted Tom Petty, whom she admired, as part of her record. She wanted that Heartbreakers sound,the same producer and engineer, and the rock feel of Bella Donna is very distinct from Fleetwood Mac's (or more properly, Lindsey Buckingham's) sound.

Every song is at very least great, a handful being utterly amazing. Never a dull moment, never a wasted breath. I think it's a (somewhat) underrated masterpiece, one of my favorite albums of the '80s, already one of my favorite decades, musically. I remember when I first heard it, I was almost 19, back in 1998 just after becoming a new Stevie/Fleetwood Mac fan. I got BD on vinyl of all things (probably had a lot to do with the big and lovely cover, and the lovely lady on it, looking right at you. This might be where my crush on Stevie started). I loved every second of it. Still do. Today it's the FM/Stevie album I listen to the most by far.

Sure, I also love The Wild Heart and dig the wild vibe of Rock a Little, and Stevie's last three studio albums have been very enjoyable, but nothing can surpass Bella Donna for me. Not even Mirage, Tusk and Rumours. Yes, I'm totally serious. It's that great in my eyes.

(Now, where's that deluxe 35th Anniversary Edition with bonus tracks? A pipe dream, apparently.)

[~*BellaDonna*~]

It will always be my favorite Stevie Nicks album.

The Highwayman, After The Glitter Fades, Bella Donna and How Still My Love are songs I can't go without.

Happy Birthday!

[bwboy]

Highwayman, regarding Stop Draggin' My Heart, I've read that Jimmy Iovine pushed for that song to be included because Stevie was really resistant to an outside songwriter, but acquiesced because she was a Petty and Heartbreakers fan. And Iovine said he pushed for it because he felt the album didn't have an obvious lead single. Jimmy and Stevie made the right choice, because if she hadn't included that song on Bella Donna, Petty would have put it on his.

Even though she wrote Leather and Lace, that top 10 song was another duet, and Edge of Seventeen peaked at #11, so Stevie must have been thrilled and relieved that Stand Back, a song she wrote and only featured her on vocals, made the top 10- leaving no doubt she could get a top 10 song solo and without Fleetwood Mac.

[Macfan4life]

I agree the album is flawless. I would swap Gold and Braid for the Highwayman but even that change would not change my devotion to this album.

Paul Fishkin of Modern Records had the biggest say with the lead single and bringing the Heartbreakers on board along with Jimmy Iovine. It was a decision to promote Stevie's solo career as a rock star and not pop princess. Stop Draggin My Heart Around was the first single and jaws dropped when they heard this raw voice and rocking sound. The single almost made it to #1.

1981 was an amazing year of music. I consider Bella Donna one of the best albums of the entire 80's decade.

[olive]

so sad she doesn't seem to care

[~*BellaDonna*~]

so sad she doesn't seem to care
She has never made acknowledgments when the album has reached important anniversaries. Like you said, its sad, really sad.

[SisterNightroad]

35 Years Ago: Stevie Nicks Goes Solo With ‘Bella Donna’
By Dave Swanson July 27, 2016 9:17 AM


Fleetwood Mac pretty much owned popular music during the last half of the ’70s. Album sales in the millions, sold-out tours, hit singles, you name it. The Mac were everywhere. Following the mega-success of Rumours in 1977, the band made a dynamic left turn with Tusk, an album that shook up the formula and is now seen as a masterpiece. As artful as that LP is, sales took a hit, even though the massive tour that followed sold out every place it played. Following the tour, the band needed a break from the road and from each other.

It was the perfect time for the members to explore some individual paths. Mick Fleetwood set out first with The Visitor, and Lindsey Buckingham later had a modest hit with Law and Order, but it was Stevie Nicks who hit the big time with Bella Donna when it was released in July 1981.

“The solo projects the Mac is doing seem to open it up a little more,” Nicks told an interviewer at the time. “Everybody’s less on edge. That’s the theory we’ve been working on, and it works. It makes everybody happier, and nobody’s jealous because everybody’s doing their own.”

Enter producer Jimmy Iovine who, at the time, was coming off a hit record with Tom Petty. “I said, ‘Well, wow, if he’s good enough for Tom Petty, he’s good enough for me,'” Nick said in a 1981 interview. From the start of the project in late 1980, Iovine kept Nicks and her ego in check by telling her “I know that you’re really used to being like the midnight cat queen that comes in whenever you feel like it,” Nicks recalled. “This is not how we’re gonna do this album. First of all, you only have three months, and second, I don’t want to waste my time with a cartoon.”

From Bella Donna‘s opening title track, it’s clear Nicks has something to prove on her own, outside Fleetwood Mac’s shadow. Nicks called in some friends: The Eagles‘ Don Henley and Don Felder lend a hand; so does Petty and most of the Heartbreakers, who contributed to the album’s first single, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” The Top 3 hit was co-written by Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell, and is the only song on the record Nicks didn’t have a hand in writing.

The album’s other collaborations were just as striking, particularly “Think About It,” co-written with the E. Street Band‘s Roy Bittan, and “Leather and Lace,” a duet with Henley that reached the Top 10. And then there’s “Edge of Seventeen,” which became one of Nicks’ signature songs, and “After The Glitter Fades,” “How Still My Love” and “Outside the Rain,” which all apply new twists to Nicks’ trademark vibe and vision.

Nicks assembled a band, which included many of the musicians who played on the album, for a tour. Bittan, Waddy Wachtel, Russ Kunkel and Benmont Tench joined her for a relatively short, 10-date run. By the end of the year, she was back in the studio with Fleetwood Mac working on their next LP, Mirage.

Bella Donna was an important step for Nicks, one that proved she stand outside the confines of her superstar band. “I wanted my whole life … to do this album,” she noted. “I wanted to do a few of my songs that I loved for all the people in the world that I loved.”


Read More: 35 Years Ago: Stevie Nicks Goes Solo With 'Bella Donna' | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevie-nicks-bella-donna/?trackback=tsmclip

[olive]

She has never made acknowledgments when the album has reached important anniversaries. Like you said, its sad, really sad.

it could also be she never got to enjoy it robin died , the band never acknowledged it ,or the success she was having it just might not be something she gives a thought about too hard for her

http://www.inherownwords.com/robin.htm

When Bella Donna came out, Fleetwood Mac was at the top of their game. It was the most incredible time. But then my best friend, Robin, was diagnosed with leukemia and that overshadowed everything. I really didn't get to enjoy Bella Donna. I found out that Robin was dying on the same day it went No. 1. I never really thought about it until now, but that's what happened. That should've been a time when I was the most happy and felt the most self-confident and successful. But actually, I really felt the most helpless, because all the money in the world couldn't save this woman's life. It was a very sad, yet balancing, thing for me.







I was on the road when Robin died. I didn't even have the time, or the luxury, to sit around and be sad about her death. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How unfortunate it was that it all had to happen at the same time. People ask, 'Wasn't it incredible when Belladonna was No. 1 and sold 3 million albums?' Yeah, it was totally wonderful except that I was watching one thing go up while I was watching another thing go down. It was really, really hard.
~Stevie Nicks, BAM August 22, 1997

[Macfan4life]

No padding, no filler, no skip over songs. Each song has its own mood that completes the album. The writing is out of this world but kudos to the musicians because the album would still be amazing without any singing........the music is that good :)

The song Bella Donna always helps me capture my inner strength.

[olive]

as an Anniversary gift she could just make a decent video of this for us


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ojGKSgug_FM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[~*BellaDonna*~]

as an Anniversary gift she could just make a decent video of this for us


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ojGKSgug_FM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Agreed. I think the video for Edge Of Seventeen was decant. However, I think she should make an actual video for Stop Dragging' My Heart Around.

[~*BellaDonna*~]

it could also be she never got to enjoy it robin died , the band never acknowledged it ,or the success she was having it just might not be something she gives a thought about too hard for her

http://www.inherownwords.com/robin.htm

When Bella Donna came out, Fleetwood Mac was at the top of their game. It was the most incredible time. But then my best friend, Robin, was diagnosed with leukemia and that overshadowed everything. I really didn't get to enjoy Bella Donna. I found out that Robin was dying on the same day it went No. 1. I never really thought about it until now, but that's what happened. That should've been a time when I was the most happy and felt the most self-confident and successful. But actually, I really felt the most helpless, because all the money in the world couldn't save this woman's life. It was a very sad, yet balancing, thing for me.







I was on the road when Robin died. I didn't even have the time, or the luxury, to sit around and be sad about her death. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How unfortunate it was that it all had to happen at the same time. People ask, 'Wasn't it incredible when Belladonna was No. 1 and sold 3 million albums?' Yeah, it was totally wonderful except that I was watching one thing go up while I was watching another thing go down. It was really, really hard.
~Stevie Nicks, BAM August 22, 1997
Never thought of it that way. I actually forgot that Robin was diagnosed during the making of Bella Donna and died the day it reached #1 on the charts. I can see why she wouldn't want to celebrate any of the albums milestones. I'm sure that this is a somber time for her.

[mitzo]

The album and its production especially never worked for me at all. Turned me away from Stevie and FM for a number of years. But yeah, happy birthday.

[annabellee]

The only way to judge these songs are against each other, not against other music of the time. They are stellar examples of musical art. My standouts are Outside the Rain, Edge of 17, Think About It, Stop Dragging My Heart Around (my 1st exposure to Stevie at the age of 11) and Bella Donna. Such awesome songs that sneak their way onto most of my playlists.

[BLY]

Kind of Woman has been and a stand out for me.

[BombaySapphire3]

I still remember hearing Edge for the first time on the radio the day that Bella Donna was released and I was getting ready to go buy the album.No song has ever blown me away that much before or since. I listened to the album non stop for months.It is still her best.

[Macfan4life]

Before 1981 we all knew Stevie could write amazing songs. But her voice and singing really stepped out on this album. It came in...out of the darkness (pardon the pun). Her voice was so strong and so powerful. Her Mac songs prior to this album were low key whispers compared to this album. Timing was perfect. The 80's had just begun and the hippie 70's style was out of fashion. Stevie looked amazing especially on the back cover with her staring through the tambourine. She was stunning.

[Newzchspy]

I wish I had a THANKS button here as I would thank @The Highwayman for the reminder of how great this album truly is/was. Looking at the dreck that she's put out lately with the likes of Dave S., it makes me appreciate just how good her mid-late 70s and 80s stuff really was. This is the kind of music we'll be hearing another 35 years from now. Her stuff after TISL, meh, it'll be at the Dollar Store in the bargain bin of .99 cents CDs soon!!

[BombaySapphire3]

I wish I had a THANKS button here as I would thank @The Highwayman for the reminder of how great this album truly is/was. Looking at the dreck that she's put out lately with the likes of Dave S., it makes me appreciate just how good her mid-late 70s and 80s stuff really was. This is the kind of music we'll be hearing another 35 years from now. Her stuff after TISL, meh, it'll be at the Dollar Store in the bargain bin of .99 cents CDs soon!!

24KG is her best reviewed solo album ever..I am not a major fan of Dave either but he did manage to capture the spirit of the times that the songs were written in IMHO.

[michelej1]

35 Years Ago: Stevie Nicks Goes Solo With ‘Bella Donna’

By Dave Swanson July 27, 2016 Ultimate Classic Rock


Read More: 35 Years Ago: Stevie Nicks Goes Solo With 'Bella Donna' | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevie-nicks-bella-donna/?trackback=tsmclip

Fleetwood Mac pretty much owned popular music during the last half of the ’70s. Album sales in the millions, sold-out tours, hit singles, you name it. The Mac were everywhere. Following the mega-success of Rumours in 1977, the band made a dynamic left turn with Tusk, an album that shook up the formula and is now seen as a masterpiece. As artful as that LP is, sales took a hit, even though the massive tour that followed sold out every place it played. Following the tour, the band needed a break from the road and from each other.

It was the perfect time for the members to explore some individual paths. Mick Fleetwood set out first with The Visitor, and Lindsey Buckingham later had a modest hit with Law and Order, but it was Stevie Nicks who hit the big time with Bella Donna when it was released in July 1981.

“The solo projects the Mac is doing seem to open it up a little more,” Nicks told an interviewer at the time. “Everybody’s less on edge. That’s the theory we’ve been working on, and it works. It makes everybody happier, and nobody’s jealous because everybody’s doing their own.”

Enter producer Jimmy Iovine who, at the time, was coming off a hit record with Tom Petty. “I said, ‘Well, wow, if he’s good enough for Tom Petty, he’s good enough for me,'” Nick said in a 1981 interview. From the start of the project in late 1980, Iovine kept Nicks and her ego in check by telling her “I know that you’re really used to being like the midnight cat queen that comes in whenever you feel like it,” Nicks recalled. “This is not how we’re gonna do this album. First of all, you only have three months, and second, I don’t want to waste my time with a cartoon.”

From Bella Donna‘s opening title track, it’s clear Nicks has something to prove on her own, outside Fleetwood Mac’s shadow. Nicks called in some friends: The Eagles‘ Don Henley and Don Felder lend a hand; so does Petty and most of the Heartbreakers, who contributed to the album’s first single, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” The Top 3 hit was co-written by Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell, and is the only song on the record Nicks didn’t have a hand in writing.

The album’s other collaborations were just as striking, particularly “Think About It,” co-written with the E. Street Band‘s Roy Bittan, and “Leather and Lace,” a duet with Henley that reached the Top 10. And then there’s “Edge of Seventeen,” which became one of Nicks’ signature songs, and “After The Glitter Fades,” “How Still My Love” and “Outside the Rain,” which all apply new twists to Nicks’ trademark vibe and vision.

Nicks assembled a band, which included many of the musicians who played on the album, for a tour. Bittan, Waddy Wachtel, Russ Kunkel and Benmont Tench joined her for a relatively short, 10-date run. By the end of the year, she was back in the studio with Fleetwood Mac working on their next LP, Mirage.

Bella Donna was an important step for Nicks, one that proved she stand outside the confines of her superstar band. “I wanted my whole life … to do this album,” she noted. “I wanted to do a few of my songs that I loved for all the people in the world that I loved.”


Read More: 35 Years Ago: Stevie Nicks Goes Solo With 'Bella Donna' | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevie-nicks-bella-donna/?trackback=tsmclip

[pryderi]

So many good memories with this album.

[Macfan4life]

I bought my Bella Donna album at Woolworths in the spring of 1983. Even though the Wild Heart was just released, I bought Bella Donna before Wild Heart. I had purchased the Stand Back 45. I played Bella Donna over and over and my mini-stereo preparing for the Wild Heart concert.

Anyone under 30 is like...what was Woolworths and what is a 45 :eek:

[twinmatrix]

I'm not a big fan of the Bella Donna album. Except the title track and Leather and Lace I don't feel connected to any of the songs. Outside the Rain and After the Glitter Fades have beautiful lyrics but I can never remember the melody and also I think the production is a bit lack luster. But I love all her albums though.

Is it true that Stevie wrote most songs on Bella Donna and 24 Karat Gold purely by herself? That's really amazing...

[mitzo]

I'm not a big fan of the Bella Donna album. Except the title track and Leather and Lace I don't feel connected to any of the songs. Outside the Rain and After the Glitter Fades have beautiful lyrics but I can never remember the melody and also I think the production is a bit lack luster. But I love all her albums though.

Is it true that Stevie wrote most songs on Bella Donna and 24 Karat Gold purely by herself? That's really amazing...

Amen. Harsh and ragged production and mostly forgettable songs. I remember being shocked at the way the magical Stevie from FM had seemingly thrown a bunch of "whatever" at a team of producers and musicians who proceeded to scrub away almost all of what made her music attractive.

Somehow it ended up selling millions. Imagine if it had actually been good!

Interestingly, the tunes on 24KG are mostly from the same era, and for the most part come out beautifully.

[Newzchspy]

Amen. Harsh and ragged production and mostly forgettable songs. I remember being shocked at the way the magical Stevie from FM had seemingly thrown a bunch of "whatever" at a team of producers and musicians who proceeded to scrub away almost all of what made her music attractive.

Somehow it ended up selling millions. Imagine if it had actually been good!

Interestingly, the tunes on 24KG are mostly from the same era, and for the most part come out beautifully.

Really, How many has 24K sold??? There's no substitute for taste and BD is/was loved by millions . Most of her memorable hits post FM Rumors/Tusk came from that album, so I don't get that its just a "meh" album to you. OTR is one her true classics that will live on for years.......

[Artemis]

Bella Donna is an album that I continue to fall deeper in love with every year. Her voice was perfect, the style was perfect, the writing was pretty perfect.

I'm currently utterly obsessed with The Highwayman. Such an underrated gem of a track and the perfect album closer.

Bella Donna is definitely her strongest album.

[michelej1]

Anti Music 08/11/2016

http://www.antimusic.com/news/16/August/11Stevie_Nicks_In_The_Studio_For_Bella_Donna_35th_Anniversary.shtml

Stevie Nicks In The Studio For 'Bella Donna' 35th Anniversary


ITS) The latest episode of the syndicated radio show In The Studio with Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands celebrates the 35th anniversary of Stevie Nicks' solo debut 'Bella Donna'. The show sent over these details:

Summer 1981 Stevie Nicks launched a major new chapter in her long-storied career with her first solo album Bella Donna, spawning three Top 15 hits including the Tom Petty-penned duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", the Don Henley duet "Leather and Lace" and the ageless "Edge of Seventeen". Bella Donna quickly shot to # 1 in America and Australia, # 2 in Canada, and # 11 in the UK, resulting in sales in excess of six million copies.

Long before she became a star as a solo performer; before she and her musical performer (then lover) Lindsey Buckingham helped to transform the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac into one of the top-selling groups of all time; even before her professional recording debut in 1973 on the album Buckingham Nicks, Stephanie Lynn Nicks was living a real-life version of the Glass Menagerie. Stevie Nicks shares her thoughts with In The Studio host Redbeard.

"I remember exactly what it was like to be 20. I mean, I was a cleaning lady, I was a waitress. I had problems... Every time I do a solo record I get more...convinced that the more honest I am with everybody, with what happens in my life and what has happened and what has gone on and how I've managed to get to this point and still have my sanity... the better."

[ViscountViktor]

My favourite Stevie album. All the songs are great to listen to, and I love the pacing, How Still My Love following Edge of Seventeen is genius, and Bella Donna is a great opener, singing in harmony with the girls.

[Jondalar]

It is her best and I think captures the classic rock sound better than any other female album.

Gotta keep in mind though that it is only 10 tracks long and very hard to criticize.nIts a perfect gem.

[michelej1]

Yahoo Music, Shannon Shreibak August 22, 2016

https://www.yahoo.com/style/why-stevie-nicks-solo-debut-024041031.html


Why Stevie Nicks’ solo debut, “Bella Donna” still matters to me — and to music — today

Comfort kills careers; the working man adage even applies to shawl twirling seraphs like Stevie Nicks.

In 1981, as Fleetwood Mac recovered from a failed album, Tusk, and toyed with respective solo projects, feather-haired, lace-yoked Stevie Nicks was conjuring up what she expected to be her first and last solo effort. Bristling with country-tinged melodies, lush pop arrangements, and her now-trademark mysticism, Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna was a grand entrance by an artist who needed no introduction.

“I can sit and look at my album for the rest of my life and say ‘Here it is. I did it. And whatever that had to go before is all right, because I did this,’” Nicks said in an interview with Canadian Television in 1981.

Truer words couldn’t have been spoken — 35 years and seven solo albums later, Bella Donna endures as Nicks’ legacy piece, for herself, for me, for flocks of women who can only dream of living in a world as magical as the one that exists within Bella Donna.

The day I stumbled upon the album, I was barely as tall as a doorknob, thumbing through my parents’ musty record collection. When I slid some love-worn record out of its resting place to reveal a heliotropic cover, a batty-eyed beatnik, and her fowl friend, I knew that I had discovered something I had waited my whole life for.

I’m sure that Stevie Nicks was gnarled by the same air of anticipation while creating the album. With her Fleetwood Mac songwriting credits teetering around 50 percent per album, critics and fans alike were unsure if she possessed the brio and musicality to carry an album without her Fleetwood Mac bandmates. Would she harness the hushed vulnerability “Sara”? Can the bedroom eye allure of “Gypsy” be recreated?

The brazen piano chords and dense harmonies that crowd Bella Donna‘s first ten seconds laid all doubts to rest, and it left me spellbound as a child.

The album’s title track, a dulcet tale of Nicks seeking stability amidst the cocaine haze and bright lights of fame, became a scarf twirling ballad for woolgathering young’uns across the world. Years after its release, I was one of them — head in the clouds and hand in lace glove.

[SisterNightroad]

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[Macfan4life]

1981 was an insanely good year for music. Bella Donna was the icing on the cake. I would rank it in the top 20 best albums of the entire 80's decade.