Best Mac Single?
 

I was looking over the single discography in the black booklet from The Chain boxed set, and even though I'm not familiar with a lot of their stuff I was reminded of how many great hit singles they had. :D Not to mention the (in most cases) equally great B-sides!

Which one do you think was the most triumphant of their hits? For me, it would be Hold Me, no contest. I may even go as far as saying it's my favorite Fleetwood Mac song. Everything about it is just awesome, from the gorgeous understated piano opening, to the creatively phrased verses and interesting guitar work (I love those plucky guitar lines and the little acoustic interlude, plus the great solo) are among the most sublime of pop songs. Plus when that chorus hits the first time it's one of the most ****ing joyous things ever. :D

Not to mention, it has the line "No step for you to dance to, so slip your hand inside my glove." Now THAT'S hot. Good one, Christine! :D

Also, the subject matter is something that I'm sure we could have all easily related to at some point or another in our lives.

I also like the contrast in the song. The subject matter is fairly dark and Christine did a great job conveying the feelings of deperation and lonliness she seemed to be feeling when writing it. You can really tell the poor woman is just at her wits end.:distress: However the music is so upbeat that you forget about it. I've never heard a sad song that wanted to make me jump for joy like this one. It's almost like the music reflects the hope she has for whoever she was writing about, if indeed it was about someone.

I've had this song on repeat for at least the 9th time now and I always have a hard time getting over its giddy, joyous rush. At work every night I always hope this one comes across the piped in soft-rock sattelite radio station (at least 4 times a week, it delivers!)

It would seem hard to narrow this down with all the other great songs they have. The anthemic Heroes Are Hard To Find and the haunting Little Lies come very close. Tusk gets a ton of points for the marching band. Think About Me and You Make Loving Fun are high up there too. But when it comes to picking a favorite, for me it was rather easy. :)

By the way what did that other co-writer dude have to do with the song? Help on lyrics? Some of the music? All of the music? Just curious. It sucks she didn't do it all herself kinda because it's so good.

I also can't believe Not That Funny was a single! I don't think I've ever heard a more annoying song.

SO what's your fave Mac radio hit?

Of all their hit singles, I have to agree with you that "Hold Me" is also my favorite. I love the piano throughout the song & I love Christine & Lindsey singing together. Other favorites that come to mind are "You Make Loving Fun", "Go Your Own Way", "Little Lies", "Don't Stop" & "Gypsy" in that order. These are all terrific songs to listen to on the radio.

I believe that Christine's co-writer on "Hold Me", Robbie Patton contributed both to the music & lyrics of the song. He was a very good friend of hers. She even produced a solo album for him around that time.

I would say that the most successful singles were Dreams and GYOW, being that Dreams was #1 and GYOW is still in heavy rotation on rock stations today (as is Dreams). But, since this isn't about the most successful singles, my favorite is Tusk. It's always been my favorite Mac song, and I think it's probably the most unique of Fleetwood Mac's songs. Hold Me, Think About Me, Gypsy and GYOW are some other personal favorites.

Robbie Patton
 

He and Christine also do a number of his on Bob Welch's "Bob Welch and Friends". Can't remember the name of the song but I do recall liking it a lot. And another of his that he does with Stevie is called "Smiling Islands". A GREAT song and Stevie's vocals are sweet!!


Joe

Gypsy or Rhiannon. Probably Gypsy, since Rhiannon is so improved live.

- Jake

Since I wasn't alive in the 1970s (I know, shame shame shame) I don't remember any of the classic songs being singles-- but I do remember Christine's voice on the radio and MTV all the time on "Hold Me" and "Little Lies," when I was younger. I also hear "You Make Loving Fun" and "Say You Love Me" like everyday on a classic rock station here. To this day, HM and LL are the most distinctive FM songs to non-FM fans I know (including my 17 year old brother.) One day he heard me playing "Little Lies," and he came into my room and said "I know this song. why do I know this song?" even though he was an infant when it came out.

Most successful singles? Christine's.
BEST Mac single? in my eyes? Go Your Own Way/Silver Springs.

Another one
 

I can't believe I forgot this one from my earlier post:"Over My Head"-I believe that's the first Fleetwood Mac song that I ever heard on the radio, it's still one of my favorites.

Exactly. Stevie who? :)

Well I wouldn't go that far, Eric, :laugh:

:D

Sara, Spare Me a Little, Man of The World and Big Love. Peter Green does and insturmental of Man Of The World on his Destiny Road album and it's really beautiful. It makes me get a little sad. Every time I hear it I just want to start barking "C'mon Peter, sing!"

Actually, my favorite radio hit that never hit the charts because it wasn't an actual single is Gold Dust Woman...actually my favorite song ever. It gets played a lot for not even being released as a single. But for ACTUAL singles, I don't know...there's so many. Sara, Gypsy, You Make Loving Fun, GYOW, and Little Lies all come to mind for me right away, AND Silver Springs.

Yep "Hold Me" is a great single overall.... It's just such a "happy" song... The vocals are great as is the music... I remeber when I was first getting into the mac way back in 97'... heh... wow 6 years already... I saw "Hold Me" on Vh-1 pop up video and recorded it... and played it over and over and over... I loved it and went out and got "Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits" the next day... then eventually I got all the albums... :)

Hey I found it on Kazza... haha now I get to watch it...

Why not? Don't get me wrong, Stevie Nicks is very talented. However, I would actually go see a show if it was the same lineup now but with Christine INSTEAD of Stevie. Stevie had some great songs, but I think it would be much easier to come up with a great set of Buckingham/McVie songs than Buckingham/Nicks songs. Songs like "Rhiannon" "Sara" "Dreams" and "Gypsy" aren't necessarily bad songs, but they just sound tedious to me, like they never quite take off anywhere special. "Sara" especially I find rather boring. The setlists I saw for this tour looked kind of bad to me. I'd still like to go to say I saw them once, but none of my favorite songs would get played. That would suck.

It was wierd, even before I started investigatig their music a couple months ago, when I first saw promo photos for the recent tour and album I thought they looked really funny without Christine in them. I always thought of Fleetwood Mac as these FIVE people, and that it just wasn't the same unless it was those 5 people. They went through SO many different people to get to a lineup that proved successful, it almost seems unfair that they're calling it Fleetwood Mac without Christine. She's a "Mac" too ya know.

It's like how Led Zeppelin were those 4 guys and those 4 only, and how Emerson, Lake And Palmer couldnt be anybody but Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Something about the current lineup just doesn't seem right. It would be wierd having an onslaught of Buckingham songs and Nicks songs, with no favorite songs between them.

But I'm getting WAY off topic! Sorry. As soon as I get my cable modem back I'm gonna have to check out the pop up vid. All I remember was a clip they showed of Lindsey botching some special effect, but it was funny.

And as far as Gold Dust I think I hear that on the radio more than any track from Rumours that was actually a single. Remember Hole's cover version of that? It rocked. :D

You're right. After all Peter did start the band.

I would say that the best single is "Little Lies." To me, it just seems like a "radio song."

Second on my list would be Rhiannon. :D

For me the best Fleetwood Mac song ever is Silver Springs. Stevies Lyrics are powerful and she she sang it live on the dance just blew me away.

Little Lies is one of My favorites and of course Seven Wonders!!! That was single right? Those are my favorite singles by the Mac and I really like the current Say You Will Single on the charts now. As far as Stevie's solo singles go, my favorite would be Two Kinds of Love and Leather and Lace. I don't know if these are all singles because I rarely listen to the radio, but I'm pretty sure they are... Is Seven Wonders a single? This is starting to bug me because I love the song so much. So if it is a single that would be my pick!

This doesn't seem to be a subjective answer to the question.

"Dreams" was the ONLY #1 single ever attained by FM. So, that would make it the "Best Mac Single". Unless you were accounting for taste.....

If so..... "Gypsy" has to be about the greatest pop song ever written, in my opinion. "Sara" should've been, but it wasn't.

"Owner Of A Lonely Heart" was Yes's only #1 single. But you also got to remember that not only is that song one of the weakest on the 90125 album, but it's not representative of what Yes is really about. Not in the least. People remember Yes for "Heart Of The Sunrise" and "Close To The Edge." Many fans consider "Owner" to be the lucky fluke they had along the way so chart placement has absolutely nothing to do with it. Any Yes fan would take the lower placing "Roundabout" or "Wondrous Stories" as best Yes singles ANY day.

"Think About Me" was a stinker compared to "Dreams" if we're going by chart placement for greatest, yet I prefer "Think About Me" by a huge margin. So once again, it's a matter of taste more than chart placement and units sold. I think I read somewhere that although "Dreams" was the highest charting, "Hold Me" actually sold more anyways. I could be wrong there though I'm really not sure.

As far as "Silver Springs" I might have to say that would be very close to "Hold Me" or better if it were actually a single. Why that song was a B-side is beyond me and I'm guessing pretty much everybody else too. How in the hell did that get swept aside for "I Don't Want To Know?" They must have been doing way more coke than what was reported. Unless it was for a good reason I don't know about. Anyone care to fill me in? I'm basically a Mac newbie. :)

And Seven Wonders was a single, with Book Of Miracles as the B-side in the US and UK. I hear lots of good things about Seven Wonders, and I'm really tempted to buy Tango In The Night as I also love the deliciously cheesy 80s gloss of "Isn't It Midnight" along with the familar singles, but I've never heard Seven Wonders. I'm also really curious to hear the song where Stevie sounds like she's croaking a bunch of paranoid garbage. :laugh:

Well...
 

I love "Spare Me a Little" too, great song, didn't know it was released as a single though.

I will have to say that the ever-popular, always over-played Dreams is my favorite Fleetwood Mac single. I say this mainly because when I think of Fleetwood Mac (the Buckingham/Nicks years anyway) I think of that song, that song IS Fleetwood Mac in my opinion, especially at that particular time in history. I was only two years old when that song came out, but it reminds me of living in Carson City, NV before my family moved to Texas and those will always be fond memories for me.

I can understand the argument that a band's biggest selling/highest charting single isn't necessarily their "best" single.

In the case of a band like Yes having a hit with "Owner Of A Lonely Heart," or the Grateful Dead having a hit with "Touch Of Grey," it is true that these songs are in no way indicative of their best work.

But for Fleetwood Mac, "Dreams" pretty much encapsulates many of the things that make them so recognizable... ace production, exquisite harmonies, reflective lyrics filled with compelling imagery, and a wonderfully memorable chorus. On top of that, add Stevie's unique voice... which, in many people's opinion, was at its all-time best.
Mix in a dose of the drama, glamour, and intrigue which surrounded Fleetwood Mac at the time, and lent itself to the music, and you have a truly top-notch single... and one that is a perfect example of "the best of Fleetwood Mac."

And the trademark "Mac Stomp"

Boom---chuck Ba-boom chuck, Boom---chuck Ba-boom chuck...etc.



:laugh:

BUY IT!!! I wholeheartedly recommend it, and daresay I play it as much as Rumours (gasp)... I know. And I'm not saying its as good as Rumours. But it is a lot of fun... so much fun! The beats alone have me banging on pots for hours. Big Love, Seven Wonders, Everywhere, Tango in the Night, Little Lies, Isn't It Midnight, and When I See You Again are all absolutely stellar tracks. All the others are solid to excellent as well, with perhaps every song except "Mystified" bearing repeated listening. Sure its 80's... but more importantly, its superb. BUY IT!!!

yeah "Tango" is definetly 80's... I don't really "care" for 80's music but there are great tracks on there... "Seven Wonders", "Little Lies", and "When I See You Again" are my favorites...

Best single...hmm...

Since we've already covered how "best" is subjective, I'll stay away from Dreams.

If we're talking best according to my tastes, I would probably say something like Hold Me as well, simply because it provokes lots of great childhood memories. My mom used to play a bunch of 45's in those days. I remember the rotation...Don Henley's Dirty Laundry, John Cougar's Hurts So Good, and Hold Me.

I also remember my sister and I staying up late hoping to see the video on MTV. We got a kick out of John and Mick messing around with all of those guitars in the sand.

If we're talking best according to the long-lasting impact of the band, I would say Go Your Own Way or Don't Stop. Even though Dreams was this incarnation's only number 1 hit in the US, I think the former two are more recognized as big hit songs by the band. Plus, they're great foot-stomping rock songs.

And anyone passing up the current tour because Christine isn't involved is really making a huge mistake, in my opinion. I didn't want to see the band live during the BTM and Time days because Lindsey was gone. But, I think the situation was different, because they attempted to "plug the hole" rather than just going on with what they had. And even without Christine, you have the core of the so-called Buckingham-Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac. The fireworks Lindsey and Stevie produce on stage (as staged as they may be these days) are worth seeing. I miss Chris too, BTW.