5 most important Stevie songs in music history?
 

This may have been done before but here goes. If you had to select 5 Stevie songs (Fleetwood or solo) that most represented her importance to the catalogue of music history what would they be?

Landslide
Rhiannon
Dreams
Sara
Edge of Seventeen

Rhiannon
Landslide
Dreams
Gold Dust Woman
Edge of Seventeen

Honourable mentions to Sara/Stand Back/Gypsy.

Rhiannon
Dreams
Sara
Edge of Sevnteen
Landslide

Dreams
Rhiannon
Silver Springs
Landslide
Sara

Most important to whom? I will say for Stevie and her career.

Rhiannon - she says she never thought it would be a single but her first hit plus her encore for solo shows

Dreams - her only #1 song and the Mac's only #1 song

Stop Draggin My Heart Around - first solo single and her biggest solo hit. It proved she could do it alone

Stand Back - she proved her first solo album was not a fluke and splashed into the MTV video scene

Gold Dust Woman - opened her solo concerts for several years

Rhiannon- introduced Stevie to the public
Dreams- only #1 song
Stop Dragging My Heart Around- she needed a hit right out of the gate and this song delivered
Stand Back- first top 10 hit completely solo, and a big hit on MTV
Landslide- introduced Stevie and the band to a whole new generation

Edge of 17

Rhiannon

Gold dust woman

Stand back

Silver springs

Landslide
Rhiannon
Dreams
Gold Dust Woman
Sara
Edge of Seventeen
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
Leather and Lace
Stand Back
I Can't Wait
Sorry, that's ten but it's the big ten that truly define her across all platforms.

I don't know which five, but definitely Edge of Seventeen and Rhiannon.

It's kind of hard because songs that I know are integral to her legacy are songs that I don't want to name, because I feel that people stop there and don't go beyond. So, I would say Landslide and Dreams, but they're too facile at this point in time.

Michele

I agree with this one. If Crystal were sung by her, I might have included it.

1. Landslide
2. Rhiannon
3. Dreams
4. Edge of 17
5. Stand Back

HM: Gold Dust Woman and Gypsy.

I agree about Stand Back. She has dozens of better quality songs, but as a career marker, that has to be there.

As for Gypsy's honorable mention, I think it might even be acceptable to swap Landslide out for Gypsy. And the Gypsy video was also groundbreaking, cementing that song's place in herstory.

I know it wouldn't make an objective list, but for me Angel would be among her most important songs.

Michele

It seems that Angel indicated where she was headed for her solo career .I love Gypsy but at this point I don't think that Landslide can be swapped out. It is her one song and perhaps even Fleetwood Mac's one song that might still be played a century from now.

Why does everyone mention Edge of 17? Almost no one knows that song except Stevie fans...

I'd say:

Landslide
Dreams
Gypsy
Rhiannon
Gold Dust Woman

I think Bootylicious actually introduced the song to a whole new generation, plus the movie and play School of Rock. I think it is more well known than you might think due to those things.

I have to disagree. Most of the time when I mention that I am a Stevie fan people often say "Oh yeah that white winged dove song". I also hear Edge all the time on my local classic rock radio station, even more than any Fleetwood Mac song. As far as her solo career goes, I would definitely consider Edge to be one of her most important.

Landslide
Dreams
Rhiannon
Edge of Seventeen
This last spot is difficult-I could honestly see either Stand Back, Sara, or Gypsy here

These may not all be my most favorite Stevie songs but these are the songs that will carry on her legacy long after she is gone.

I'm in EU maybe it's just different here.

It is ..Stevie's solo career was big in the states in the early 1980s even overshadowing Fleetwood Mac for awhile .Her success in Europe was far more muted.She did not have a top ten album in any European country the UK included until the OSOTM rode Tango's coattails in 1989.

I'm sure that's what it is. I bet it's even different in different parts of the U.S. The radio station that I was talking about seems to have Edge on constant rotation haha :nod:

Landslide for sure. It's her signature song and has been now since the Dance.

All the ones she does all the time on tv shows etc automatically:

Landslide
Stand Back
Edge of 17
Stop Dragging (this one gets covered a fair bit in recent years)

Gypsy for the success of the video
Dreams because it's a staple on the radio. we know it went to #1 but most people don't, especially younger folks. it was #1 before they were born.

Landslide
Dreams
Rhiannon
Gypsy
Edge of Seventeen

I don't know anyone that knows Stand Back :shrug: And the few people I've played it for said it sounds like it should be in an exercise video.

Rooms on Fire was a big hit in the UK, which was why her album sold so well there. If it were really a matter of "riding coattails," then the Wild Heart would have been a hit there, coming just a year after Mirage. Wild Heart wasn't a big hit there, but OSOTM was.

Mirage did not have much coattails to ride it hit number 5 in the UK.. Tango on the other hand hit number one there in 2 different years and generated 3 top ten UK singles, more than any other Fleetwood Mac album in their entire history. Rooms on Fire would not have gotten the airplay it did to make it to number 16 on the UK charts if it had not been for Tango even at that number 16 is not exactly a big hit.

Rooms on Fire is tied with Edge of Seventeen for the most played Stevie song here in the UK. I genuinely think it still would've been a hit here even without Tango. Maybe not a top 20 but certainly a top 40.

Btw, Mirage was more of a gradual seller here. It debuted at #5 but didn't stay very high in the charts for long. So Stevie's The Wild Heart wouldn't have really benefited from that very much as Mirage wasn't considered a huge album here.

Right ..Mirage could even be considered a bit of a come down after Rumours and Tusk both having hit number one there.

wow really? What planet are you living on? :lol::sorry:

I live on Earth and I'm referring to some of my friends/people I hang out with. They're not Stevie or Fleetwood Mac listeners but lot of them are still familiar with Rhiannon, Dreams and one of my friends really loves Gypsy without knowing much else of her catalogue. But Stand Back generated a confused look. Hence why I chose those songs, since I know people who don't really listen to Stevie or Fleetwood Mac but they do know those songs.

1) Rhiannon
2) Dreams
3) Landslide
4) Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
5) Silver Springs

I have to go out on a limb and include "Silver Springs" on this list. Prior to 1997, the song was a b-side known only to Stevie's fans. However, the song being re-recorded for "The Dance" is what basically brought Stevie's career back from the dead. From 1989 to 1997, her career was on life support. "The Dance" and "Silver Springs" changed that.