Monday Morning and Warm Ways as the white album’s first U.S. singles?
 

I was just told a bit of “White Album” history that I didn’t know. Are others aware of this, if in fact it’s true that Warm Ways and Monday Morning were released as U.S. singles, but flopped?

This is a quote from a Facebook user named Kenneth Paule, talking specifically about the U.S., not Europe:
“I worked for Warner Bros. Records and you are wrong. The first album was released in April 1975 and "Over My Head" was not a hit until the fall of 1975. "Rhiannon" was a hit in the spring if 1976. The band toured from April 1975 until the end of the year playing small venues or opening for famous artists. Record companies always release a single when an album comes out and the artist goes in tour. "Warm Ways" was released when the album came out and was a flop. Then "Monday Morning" came out in late summer and was a flop. But the record company released the third single, "Over My Head" because the band was doing very well on tour. Lindsey and mostly Stevie were getting a lot of attention. "Over My Head was a hit" and then "Rhiannon" was and then "Say You Love Me" was. The band has often said that "Over My Head" was the first single because it was their first hit. And they didn't want to advertise to their fans that it took three singles to have a real hit.”

More from Kenneth Paule, who says he worked for Warners at the time:

““Warm Ways" was chosen because the record company wanted a song of Christine's was the first single, as she had been in the band and they though their fans needed to introduce Lindsey ans Stevie slowly. When it didn't do anything the put out "Monday Morning" because it was an upbeat rock song. Rolling Stone Magazine on their review of the album said new member Stevie Nicks voice sounded raucous and callow compared to the beautiful voice of Christine McVie. Not only was Stevie very hurt by that, but the record company was nervous to release any of her songs. But "Rhiannon" live was stopping the show at every concert and the record company was very aware of the attention Stevie was getting. So after "Over My Head" was a hit they couldn't wait to release "Rhiannon". And even though "Landslide" and "World Turning" were never released as singles they both became hits as radio was realizing what a great band they were. Their Sumner 1976 was when Stevie started wearing the black chiffon dress with the platform boots and her top hat. And she quickly became a huge sex symbol, which helped the band get even bigger, making way for Rumours to be the smash hit album it was.“

I’ve never seen US 45s of Warm Ways or Monday Morning.

I haven’t either, but this guy seems convincing and says he was at the record company. 🤷*♂️

You would think there'd be at least some 45's in the basement bins.

I've read Warm Ways was a single in UK, Blue Letter was side B. I was looking for a US release, but only found europeans, including this italian record.

https://images.45cat.com/fleetwood-m...ays-1975-3.jpg

Yes Warm Ways was only released in the UK as the first single and it flopped. But it was never released in the States. This person is wrong because there is nothing on Fleetwood Mac official websites or Wikipedia that ever talks about the first single was Monday Morning. I think Mick even wrote in his first book the joy the band felt when the first US Single Over My Head was climbing the charts.
When someone says "My uncle or dad is a cop" means they are not a cop. When someone says they "worked for Warner Brothers" thus makes me a Fleetwood Mac expert, they are also not. Landslide, World Turning, and Monday Moring all enjoyed radio airplay. But they were never released as official singles. Gold Dust Woman and The Chain still get some of the most airplay but never released as official singles.
If you believe Stevie (I know I know) she has always said that she never wanted Rhiannon to be released as a single because no one thought it was a single and she did not want to see her song drag down the band.

Speaking of basement bins. I once came across a cassette tape of Rock A Little at a thrift store for $1.00. I still had a cassette player on my stereo but still passed :)

He was probably the custodian. :laugh:

The first red flag for me was when he said the album was released In April. It was released on July 11, 1975. “Over My Head” was released in September and the band hired out to get a more radio friendly mix.

I mean I get that, to some extent, and I’m not saying I necessary believe this guy. But his claim is that the band and label pretended those songs weren’t singles because they wanted the public to think their first single was a success right out of the gate. That seems plausible.

I googled his name “Kenneth Paule,” and didn’t find anything related to Warner Brothers, so who knows. But Wikipedia can be edited by anyone so it certainly isn’t a reliable source either.

Wish they would have tried to hide the fact that Oh Diane was a single. :D:laugh:

True but the band had wild success. There would be no reason for them to lie. Mick documents all the albums, the peaks, the valleys, hits, disappointments, etc. It would not make sense to hide the fact Monday Morning was the first US Single. Mick would write the more successful the band got in the states, the more the band's success faded in the UK.
Monday Morning used to get lots of airplay especially stations on Monday Mornings and then making machine gun fire when Lindsey would sing "Monday Morning you sure look fine"

Hate you! :shocked:

And wow, is Stevie ever beautiful in this still. :eek:

Yeah I’m going to defer to Christine on this one. “This is the first single we ever had from the uh…White Fleetwood Mac album……you can take me to paradise..”

WE know more about the band than "the experts", especially when it comes to a 48yo album. Do you think he's been debating crap about a dinosaur band for the past 48 years?

Further detection:
Kenneth Richard Paule, Producer, is an American Entertainment Executive who was born in Nagoya, Japan to a father who was a Col. in the US Air Force and served for 26 years as a fighter pilot and a mother who worked in the theatre at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC for 25 years.

He was raised in Washington, DC and attended The American University. He began his career as a Travel Coordinator for a private airline company, traveling with rock stars on tour 1978-1980. Following that he began working for screen legend Elizabeth Taylor when she made her Broadway debut in "The Little Foxes" 1981-1982 and her subsequent Broadway appearance in "Private Lives" 1983. He then returned to the music industry, first at the famed New York recording studio The Power Station 1985-1990, and then at the Warner Bros. / Elektra Asylum / Atlantic Group music conglomerate in New York City 1990-1997.

He then moved to Los Angeles and worked for the Entertainment Industries Council, Inc. (EIC), who presented The Annual Prism Awards 2000-2010, While there, he served as Supervising Producer of the TV show, which aired yearly on The FX Network. He also co-produced an annual Capitol Hill Premiere of the awards prior to airing, which was hosted by a committee of over 75 members of the US Senate and House of Representatives. He additionally produced Public Service Announcements on various issues.

Moving back to the east coast in 2011 he returned to being a Travel Coordinator for touring rock groups, movie stars, athletes and political dignitaries.

THIS!
If there ever was a mic drop statement. This is it.

What show, concert, etc. was that?

I think it's the Oh Diane video.

Its from Top of the Pops
Is that not some British version of American Bandstand?

If American Bandstand was a cringey mime-fest, then yes.

Oh, that's why I had never seen that clip. Top of the Pops was never aired in Peru. Midnight Special was, SNL too, but no TOTP.

By the way, correct me if I'm wrong but they look kind of bored.

It was. I dont think anyone ever sang live on American Bandstand. Chris performed 2 songs in 1984 but she lip synced like everyone else. The band would play or someone would dance around with microphone while people dancing badly would be around them. That's the feel I got from Top of Pops. But you got great TV time for promotion.

Good lord these shows are cringe fest material looking at them now. What did Lindsey say that one time about the steakhouse circuit..next stop Palookaville. This looks like what that kind of nightmare would be like

Yes, good point, also good point about none of us ever saw an actual U.S. 45. If you say it was a “single,” you need a 45 in the mid-seventies.

Second, in everything we’ve seen in Billboard, the industry rag, none of us has ever seen a mention of any single in 1975 other than “Over My Head.” No DJ who worked for AM pop radio in 1975 has ever reported that he tried to play Mac singles from the new album before “Over My Head.” We’ve just never heard this — and if it were true, it would be publicly true. The most I would buy is that the Reprise label wanted to release those other songs as singles and maybe tested them on a radio audience sample of some sort.

But this brings up another point. Was it common to release a single many weeks after the release of the album in 1975? That in and of itself is odd. The album was surely mastered and in the can by June 1975 if it was available July 11, so why didn’t they release a single at that time? We’re aware that the label had no high hopes for yet another Fleetwood Mac album and all that, but why not release a single promptly? I wish I could go back and read the opening sentences of Samuel Graham’s authorized bio of the band, but I no longer have the book.

The first show of the 1975 tour was May 15, that leg ended on June 8, the album was released on July 11, the second leg started on July 25, and there was a break between September 1 through September 12. Since Mick was managing the band, maybe they had to work on the radio mix around their tour schedule.

:D :woohoo:

LOL

If I'm right, I think the band may have originaly mimed this "live" on a satellite link on a programme called the Late Late Breakfast Show which was hosted, as older UK ledgies will know by the perennially smug and annoying Noel Edmonds. I think the performance was then re-shown on Top of the Pops with the palpably uninterested audience dancing as if they were at a wake.

The whole thing is terrible, without the saving grace of it being comically so; I just wish every copy of this could be flung into a back hole. Lindsey just looking daggers at everything is kind of weird. He's almost annoyed by how handsome he is.

EDIT- yes I was right - here's an unimpressed John Peel introducing it on TOTP referring to it being from the Late Late Breakfast Show, which had gone out live. This would explain why the miming was so terrible, as they couldn't do another take as they were "miming live" in the US in a programme that went out live in the UK. I hope that makes sense..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzUNatFmvhw

Totally makes sense. The Mac did such a short US tour it would be strange to fly all the way to the UK just to mime Oh Diane.

Someone remind me again. Hold Me and Gypsy never charted in the UK but this was a hit?

Tell me WHY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWTdEe5H6BA

Gypsy did get to #46 in the UK, Can't go back got to #83, and Hold Me did get to #94 in 1989- it was released as a single from the Greatest Hits album - with No Questions Asked as the B-side

https://www.officialcharts.com/artis...fleetwood-mac/

https://www.discogs.com/release/2271...od-Mac-Hold-Me

Wow, you said pretty much everything I was thinking. The audience dancing to this song… well, they certainly gave it their best shot. It’s not their fault the song is so bad.

Sounds like this was another Lindsey solo song where he played all the instruments and none of the other members played on it. Poor Lindsey is completely constrained to the mic because it’s not live, and his lip syncing at the end is hilariously awful. I’m surprised Stevie even bothered to show up, but at least she didn’t mug for the camera as much like she was known to do. John only looked irritated at one point, the rest of the time, his game face was on. Good for Christine for sitting down LOL!

Maybe they got paid good money for this ‘performance?’

Christine miming “Diiiane” always made me crack up. She knew it was cringe.

I hear it as dyiiin'.They truly were dying out there.

Surely with a bit of work they could have delivered something truly live. But I suppose they were trying to flog a studio record so that's what they ended up doing. They never did play "Oh Diane" live on the Mirage tour did they, which tells us a lot. I get that Lindsey may have wanted to pay tribute to the kind of innocent songs he would have heard as a boy in the 50s, but it doesn't really work either as a pastiche or an original. Jeremy would have done it much better!

Hard LOL!!! :laugh::thumbsup:

It totally sounds like a song from his solo album or Kiln House.

I love Jeremy's version of Mission Bell. It's the antidote to Oh Diane.

1950’s throwbacks like Shakin’ Stevens were quite a thing at that time in the UK….so I sort of understand why they released it and why it was pretty successful. Still a curious choice though.