What songs do you consider non-hits from Rumours?
 

We need to start figuring out what songs from Rumours will count as non-hits. So multiple choice votes for the songs you feel are non-hits and should be eligible in the contest.

Since there are 11 songs on Rumours and 10 choices available, I'll remove "Go Your Own Way" since it was a hit single and won Favorite Fleetwood Mac-Lindsey song back in the 2010 contest. :cool:

probably no songs from Rumours should be included :laugh:

here are the songs:

1. "Second Hand News" Lindsey Buckingham 2:43 = hit
2. "Dreams" Stevie Nicks 4:14 = hit
3. "Never Going Back Again" Buckingham 2:02 - maybe can be considered, although has multiple country live covers
4. "Don't Stop" Christine McVie 3:11 = hit
5. "Go Your Own Way" Buckingham 3:38 = hit
6. "Songbird" C. McVie 3:20 - maybe can be considered, but with multiple covers... hard

1. "The Chain" Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, C. McVie, John McVie, Nicks 4:28 = hit
2. "You Make Loving Fun" C. McVie 3:31 = hit
3. "I Don't Want to Know" Nicks 3:11 - probably hit, but possible consideration
4. "Oh Daddy" C. McVie 3:54 - can be considered
5. "Gold Dust Woman" Nicks 4:51 = hit

Second Hand News (I wouldn't say it was ever a "hit")
NGBA
Songbird
I Don't Want To Know
Oh Daddy
Gold Dust Woman

I don't think The Chain counts because I know the Dance version charted (on Rock tracks or something?) and Wikipedia says it has charted in the UK.

Second hand News
Never Going Back Again
Gold Dust Woman
I don't Wanna Know

And Oh Daddy Even though I forgot to click it.

Mick

ok people - if Second Hand News and Gold Dust Woman are not hits, how come they are still regularly played on many classic rock stations? and how come LB and SN cannot get around performing them live whenever they do a full concert, whether solo or with mac - and always get a rousing reception reserved for hits?! and how come both songs were covered by some other big acts (Love, Kid Rock, etc)?!

EDIT: and, don't get me wrong - i love both of these songs - they are easy in my top 5 mac songs ever.

They just don't spring to MY mind as hits.....and they never will.

Mick

I'm just not sure on this one... I think I've heard every single song on Rumours on the radio at some point or another.

:thumbsup: yup! to reiterate my same thoughts from the beginning of the thread - probably the whole album should be excluded from any non-hits poll.

I don't consider I Don't Want To Know and Oh Daddy 'hits'.... but all the rest of them I do to some extent.

Definitely eliminate the four singles. Then, the question in my mind is whether to include The Chain and GDW. They're both pretty famous, so I'm going to have to think about it. I would include all the other tracks in the poll, even though every Rumours track is pretty well known.

I'll add it in for you. :cool:

For me, Gold Dust Woman is more of a hit that Second Hand News, though besides GYOW and Dreams, they represent Lindsey and Stevie still to this day...They have staying power, if you will.

That's kinda what I'm thinking, too.

Here's the deal about The Chain and Gold Dust Woman - they both did extremely well in the 2010 favorite song contest. The Chain won the whole freakin' contest, while Gold Dust Woman was voted the #2 favorite Stevie song, with Gypsy #1 and Silver Springs #3. So if either The Chain/GDW are in this contest, they "should" do quite well possible making it to the end. :shrug:

I mean, I just figure, if my mom (who is not a fleetwood mac fan) recognizes a song and starts singing along with it... then we can consider that a hit.

And I have witnessed her do that with all of the Rumours songs except for Oh Daddy, I Don't Want To Know and Songbird. But I think Songbird has def become an iconic Chris song and can therefore be considered a hit..

I agree. There is nothing to figure out. The entire album in its entirety is a "Hit" so to speak. With all respect, this thread subject is really stretching the limits of logical discourse.

I voted for Oh Daddy and IDWTK, those are the ony songs I consider non-hits.

A "hit" is a song that was released as a single and/or charted relatively high. I gave Top 20 originally as a basis, but I would even broaden that to Top 40.

I don't care how many times a song is played on the radio or is in a set list or is a fan favorite - the word "hit" means it sold copies as a single and charted.

Here are the songs that did not chart/were not released:

Oh Daddy
Songbird
Second Hand News
Never Going Back Again
The Chain
Gold Dust Woman
I Don't Want to Know

Also, whether or not a song is a "hit" is not an opinion. It's a fact.

I retract my last statement on this subject and completely agree with you. However, because Rumours is an album that most human beings have heard every track from and that radio has played a lot of the non hits on a regular basis, then I can understand why one would consider a song like say GDW or The Chain a 'hit' song.

Maybe, but you have to have a solid definition of the word "hit" and even you weren't sure whether to define it as Top 20 or Top 40. Billboard charts are a handy tool, but even then the lines get blurry. Consider Heart's "Crazy On You".....a staple of rock radio stations even today. It's definitely one of their most famous songs, but it peaked at No. 35, so not a hit by some standards. Years later they made the Top 10 with "Nothing At All" which is a great song but hasn't really been played on the radio since the year it was released.

I also understand why fans would consider anything from Rumours a "hit". But, technically speaking those songs still weren't not "hits" by industry standards. I would refer to them as "fan favorites" or popular album cuts.

I agree, the lines can be blurry. All I am saying is there is a definition of the term "hit". The argument can be made for how high does a song chart before being labeled a hit. In your example, I have never heard or don't remember "Nothing At All" -- it didn't chart in the US and went to 38 in the UK.

In both of these cases (Rumours & Dreamboat Annie), the album being a hit drives the popularity of the songs, even if the songs are not released as singles in some cases. But, I still would argue that just because the album is a hit the songs cannot be considered hit songs unless they are released as singles and chart high -- some would say Top 20 or Top 40 and some may argue Top 100. I think Top 100 is too broad.

"Nothing At All" was a U.S. Top 10 hit in the spring of 1986....it was the follow-up to "These Dreams." The fact that you never heard/don't remember it sort of proves my point. Which is the bigger hit....."Crazy on You" (No. 35) or "Nothing At All" (No. 10)?

Where is your source? The one I read said it did not chart in the US.

Never said you didn't have a point. However, I wasn't listening to or keeping up with rock/pop charts closely in the '80's & '90's. But, an industry hit is an industry hit -- regardless of if a fan remembers it 25 years later.

For example here are three songs from 1977's Billboard top 10 that I do not remember either the song or the artist:

5. Angel In Your Arms » Hot
6. I Like Dreamin' » Kenny Nolan
7. Don't Leave Me This Way » Thelma Houston

These were obviously still big hits...

(Note: Angel in Your Arms was covered by other artists and I remember their versions. I have no memory of a group called Hot.)

I've never heard #5 but 6 & 7 yes. #7 still receives moderate airplay today.

All Billboard reference books.....Top 10 charts, Top Pop Singles, plus I subscribed to the magazine back then.

And I wouldn't argue that "Nothing At All" wasn't a hit. It obviously was. I'm more interested in "Crazy On You." If we were trying to find the favorite non-hit by Heart, would it be included in the poll since it didn't even come close to the Top 20?

Also, hope you don't think I'm picking on you or trying to start something. I'm just debating (with myself as much as anyone else) because what sounded like it was going to be a very simple and fun poll has become kind of complicated.

Very interesting info. I loved the song Nothing At All when it was played on the radio even tho I already had that album at that time. Crazy On You is a classic radio track, one of those songs I can hear endlessly and never get sick of but probably haven't heard Nothing At All in over a decade and don't GAF.

I quite agree:thumbsup:

Mick

I don't know how IDWTK could be considered a hit under any circumstances.

I don't think Oh Daddy is one either, but we focused fans have heard it a lot and I know why it's a hit to some of us.

But not I Don't Want to Know.

Michele

I think part of what is coloring our judgement is the long term live performances. For example, nobody has yet to reply about Songbird. To me Landside is to Stevie as Songbird is to Christine. Yet Landslide was deemed a hit and Songbird seems to leaning towards 'non-hit'. However, with Christine and most of her songs retired, Songbird hasn't been played live since '98, plenty of time for it and others to get out of the 'hit' status.

Meanwhile, FM setlists since 2003 focus incredibly on the early Rumours stuff keeping those songs in our memories more and alot longer.

But Landslide is on the radio constantly (mostly The Dance version but sometimes the original) whereas Songbird never is.

We could make it easy and say that a song has to have been released as a single and made the charts to qualify as a hit, thereby eliminating songs like The Chain and GDW. Of course that still leaves the issue of how high it has to chart before it qualifies as a hit:

Don't Stop (No. 3)
Gypsy (No. 12)
Over My Head (No. 20)
Love In Store (No. 22)
Save Me (No. 33)
Sisters of the Moon (No. 86)

Where does anybody draw the line?

I would say in the top 20, although I consider Love in Store to be a hit. But I don't consider Save Me to be one. It's rather subjective.

Maybe in the top 30, or top 25? #86 is definitely not a hit.

Also, I'm still having a problem in figuring out what songs should count as hits as far as the Pre-Rumours era goes. They didn't really have that many, as compared to the Rumours era. :shrug:

No, not at all. I appreciate the discussion. It's a great question you bring up. I am not sure the source I used was correct for the Heart singles you mentioned. Of course, I would consider Crazy on You a hit in the Top 40...

This is why, in my opinion, Top 40 makes the most sense to qualify as a hit. In the states, it was the format radio used for weekly countdowns of the "hits in the nation". I personally would not consider a song to be a hit if it charted between 41-100.

I also suggest Billboard to be the sole recognized source. I think it's the oldest and most recognized chart.

Final Decision
 

Oh Daddy, Songbird, Second Hand News, Never Going Back Again, and I Don't Want to Know are deemed non-hits and will be in the contest.

Thanks...:cool: