U.S. single releases
 

I’m looking for definitive evidence (beyond Wikipedia and Discogs) on whether the following songs were released as singles in the US, or only outside the US:

Oh Diane (which I always thought was Europe-only, but Discogs lists a US version)
Farmer’s Daughter (again, Discogs lists a US version)
Can’t Go Back
Isn’t It Midnight

Did any of these actually get any play on US radio, other than Isn’t It Midnight being picked up by rock stations?

I don't know about US, but in Peru, a radio played Can't Go Back a lot of times in 1982. In fact, it was the only Lindsey song I knew from Mirage, until I taped the whole album at a friend's home who bought it. I can't say if it was released locally as a single.

I never heard Isn't It Midnight on the radio ever and I listened to rock stations. Many rock stations sort of shunned the Mac post Tusk. But I did hear Family Man on the radio twice when it was officially released as a single after Everywhere.
Isn't It Midnight was a single that charted well in Ireland. I think it made the top 30 there.
I think there is confusion because in the old days bands would release different singles in different countries.

Some of the Rolling Stones biggest hits were never officially released as singles. When that happens it shows how good the music is. It happened to the Mac on Rumours. Some of classic rock station's most popular Mac playlists include Gold Dust Woman and The Chain and neither were released as singles. Landslide was popular even before the Dance. That is proof how good the music is on an album when the non-singles become mainstay radio hits.

I've heard Oh Diane and Isn't It Midnight on the radio. Not the other 2. I always thought Isn't It Midnight was just an album track that was played on album rock stations.

Discogs suggests Oh Diane was released as the fourth single in the us in feb 83. I guess it’s success in the uk prompted a us release. I hadn’t previously cottoned on to its success in the uk being linked to Charles and Diana’s recent wedding. #35 us adult contemporary (does that chart actually have any meaning?)

I guess this is sort of what my original question comes down to: Just how accurate is Discogs? As you said, it suggests there was a US release of Oh Diane, but can that be trusted?

Excellent point about Princess Diana

Did you know her wedding to the Prince inspired AC DC's album: For Those About To Rock. They were playing and rehearsing in the UK for their follow up to Back In Black when they kept hearing all the cannons going off for the wedding. This gave them the idea to include cannon blasts on the album and they also made the album cover.
Pretty cool. Its like when Mick was in France and heard the marching band gave him an idea to include a marching band on Tusk.

Reading the feb 83 Billboard top 100, the only Mac song that appears in the list is Love in Store. And in march 83 there are none.

Well….theres a physical us record….
https://www.45cat.com/record/729698
….Thats Alright B side
In the uk it was backed by Only Over You

Interesting. I wonder why there’s no pic of a US sleeve (seemingly anywhere on the Internet)? This does seem to be proof that Oh Diane was a single in the US.

Come to think of it, didn’t one of Mick’s books from the ‘90s include a complete singles discography?

Here are all the U.S. singles on Discogs.com.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/47333...EPs&country=US

To my understanding, "Oh Diane" was the only song of the four released as a single in the United States. As mentioned above, it received light airplay and reached the top 40 on the Adult Contemporary Chart in April 1983. The Great Rock Discography book also lists "Oh Diane" as both a UK and US single, albeit with different release dates and B-side. It was the third single in the UK after "Hold Me" and "Gypsy" and the fourth single in the US after "Love in Store". In the UK, "Can't Go Back" was lifted as the fourth single from Mirage given the success of "Oh Diane" in that country. However, it was not released in the United States.

"Isn't it Midnight" was released as a promotional single, making it eligible for the Mainstream Rock Chart, where it peaked in the top 20 around the time of the release of "Seven Wonders". As for "Farmer's Daughter", the song was only released as a single in select countries and became a top ten hit in Austria but charted nowhere else.

I have heard Love In Store on the radio. (Not recently) But a few times in a supermarket or a Best Buy, etc.

I see the "Fleetwood Mac Music" and the "Now Sounds Music" BMI that usually appear in songs written by Lindsey (Stevie's songs have the "Welsh Witch Music"). But Lindsey's Mirage songs has also the Putz Tunes, publishing company related to the works of Richard Dashut. I don't get the publishing scheme. Why doesn't Gypsy have the Putz Tunes BMI, since it's also from Mirage, produced by Richard? Chris songs have other publishing company but no Putz Tunes, too.

https://www.discogs.com/es/release/1...vXW-Q8kyGxwhXp

https://images.45cat.com/fleetwood-m...ane-1983-2.jpg

I’ve never understood how Isn’t It Midnight wasn’t a hit. Family Man was the fifth release, and it bombed and certainly stalled any further momentum for future Fleetwood Mac singles, so maybe that affected IIM? It was a mistake to release Family Man as a single anyway, since Lindsey had left the band months prior- why release a single by a band member who was no longer in the band? Another possibility was they didn’t want to release three consecutive singles by the same member. Isn’t It Midnight seemed like a natural choice for the radio.

I believe Christine's was Fleetwood Mac Music. It's been a while. But that's in my memory.

PREACH
Its the best song on the album and actually should have been the lead single. It would have blown people away after waiting 5 years for a new Mac song. With a good video, it would have crashed the top 10. Then Warner could have released their bubble gum Big Love, Seven Wonders, etc.

A proper video of Everywhere would have done a lotta lotta good, too.

The momentum was really soaring. FM was all over the news, before and especially after LB announcement. They should have made him do one last video. But, the anger and fighting, just too raw.

Everywhere video, then release IIM, and don't release Family Man.

I agree, I sldo thought maybe they thought they were too many Christine songs on radios, and didn't consider another Stevie song besides Seven Wonders to be good enough for a single.

I wonder how singles were chosen in Fleetwood Mac. A band consensus? If so, was Lindsey still involved in those decisions, after he left them? How much decision-making power did the record company have on those issues?

And I agree IIM is a great song and FM is not one of Lindsey's best works. But I'm surprised of the reviews quoted in the Wikipedia page of Family Man. I completely disagree about being one of his best songs ever written.
Cash Box called it "an engaging dance tune" with "an ethereal vocal and throbbing groove." Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis thought that Buckingham's "unsettled twitchiness" was evident in the "staccato vocals of 'Family Man.'" Alex Henderson of AllMusic labeled "Family Man" as one of the best songs ever written by Buckingham.

I am one of the few that really like Family Man. It's just not single material.

He would have released that as a single on h is solo album. Hence, low sales.
I recently heard Go Insane and thought, this is absolutely the best choice for a single. As is, Trouble.

I'm with you, I do like the song. Actually the only songs I don't like in Tango are Caroline and WISYA (I can't stand the hakuna mata... I mean the whattamatta baby :) ).

But I disagree with the AllMusic critic that says i'ts one of best Lindsey's song. If it had to be another Lindsey song, I'd have chosen You and I Part II as a single instead of Family Man.

If they had chosen Welcome to the Room, instead of Family Man, as a single (I understad it was a single in UK), it would have made no difference to me. I'm not crazy about those two songs, I just like them equally, although not as much.

But Isn't It Midnight, that song really rocks. I like it much more than Little Lies.

I am shocked that no one thinks whatsa matta baby should have been released as a single after Everywhere.
Speaking of Everywhere, the live Tango concert video version should have been the video for Everywhere.
I needed to be in charge back then ;)

I'm sure some would have chosen Whattabu..- I mean Whatamatta. But IMHO it would have been a worse mistake. And I agree about the video for Everywhere. That Dick Turpin, Highwayman theme or whatever that was, I didn't like it.

I know we’re all playing Monday morning quarterback here, and I had never thought of it before, but you’re right, Isn’t It Midnight would have been an incredible first single. I mean, Big Love got the job done, it created the buzz for the new album, had folks wondering who provided the love grunts’ lol, and had an interesting (but really dated) video, but IIM would have really created buzz too. Tango really showcased Christine’s growth and confidence as a songwriter, I have no idea how much of that could have been due to her then husband, I know she said or implied after they divorced he didn’t do much with her songs, but you can definitely see a difference. IIM, Big Love, Seven Winders, Little Lies, and Everywhere would have been a more successful sequence of singles, I think.

I suspect Lindsey had no say in anything once he left the band, including selection of singles. I also think the label decided to release Family Man before IIM to avoid too many consecutive singles by one singer. Every previous album had a balance of singles, so Tango would have been the first to have have had one singer with three singles in a row.

I also am surprised by the love critics showered on Family Man. Perplexed would be the better word. And Stevie had no chance of having another single from Tango.

Stevie was in bad shape during the recording of Tango but its the first time she sort of brought her solo gig into the band. She did not write Seven Wonders. She has written every other song she put on a Mac album. It was common for her to take songs given to her on her solo albums. In fact ALL of her solo albums except have a song written by someone else (well maybe not In Your Dreams or 24k) but you get the point. She gave the band a song she did not write. It was unchartered territory. Big Love and Caroline were direct lifts off Lindsey's solo album. There are many things I don't care for on Tango. But considering what Lindsey and the band had to deal with I suppose its the best album that ever could have been imagined.

See, this is where Discogs adds confusion. They list a U.S. release of “Farmer’s Daughter.”

I googled that "wbs49700" and there's another page that shows Farmer's Daughter as a single. The picture of the record in that page says "Made in USA".

https://www.45cat.com/record/wbs49700

It was a singie in Austria too, according to an austrian page.

Wild! So it appears we’ve confirmed Farmer’s Daughter was released in the U.S. I wonder if any stations actually played it? I absolutely adore their cover of the song. I think it’s one of the best showcases of their three-part harmonies ever.

For Behind the Mask, I'm curious if "Save Me" was the best choice as the first single. According to Rick Vito, the band and record label had differing opinions on what to release first. With the exception of Rick, who wanted "Love is Dangerous" to be selected, the rest of the band wanted "Save Me" instead. Meanwhile, the record label suggested "Skies the Limit". Rick also said that there were "different opinions on the second single" as well. Ultimately, "Skies the Limit" became the second single whereas "Love is Dangerous" was a promotional single, which actually charted in the lower realms of the Canadian charts based on airplay alone. Below is a link to a newspaper article where Rick discussed the selection of the singles.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/537...g_id=173653229

I THINK Farmer's Daughter was the B side to.....fukc..... the Fireflies 45? I have it, SOMEWHERE.

I think Save Me was the best choice. I did hear Love Is Dangerous on the radio once. Anyone remember when John Candy had a radio show? I was called Radio Kandy. It was nationally syndicated and there was a local radio station that picked it up for about a year or two. I heard it on his show in the summer of 1990 which gave me a false belief Love Is Dangerous was the second single.
Gosh you know Stevie's songs are bad when they are not even considered being released as singles. She lucked out with Seven Wonders because she was close to not having singles on that album either.

This time I agree with the label. I think I'm one of the few ledgies who likes Skies more than Save Me. Neither of them is a gem, but I tend to listen to Skies more often.

I think the results are usually unpredicble. I remember I bought Donna Summer's Spring Affair single in the mid 70s. Winter Melody was on side B. And after a few weeks WM was the most popular song of Four Seasons of Love on local radios.

According to this page, FM was side A. I don't how reliable is, but if you find the record it would be interesting to compare it.

https://www.45cat.com/record/wbs49700

The first time I heard “Save Me” on the radio knowing that a new Mac album was on the way, my immediate thought was “Ugh, this is the best they can do?” I disliked it from the moment I heard it and even today I think it’s one of Christine’s worst songs. “Skies the Limit” is a bit cheesy, but it would have been by far the best pick for first single, given that it has a Stevie harmony and sounds a bit like “Little Lies,” a huge hit from their previous studio album. Second single should have been “Love is Dangerous” and third single should have been “When the Sun Goes Down,” which, although it would have represented a different, countrier side of Mac, also has the most Buckingham-like production on the album and is pretty damn catchy.

To me, Save Me is the only song on BTM that has great bones. The arrangement stinks but the core song is excellent, especially the verses and the “I will follow you” part right before the chorus.

Skies is the only Christine song I truly hate. That chorus—ugh!

Love is Dangerous has a certain appeal for rock radio. It’s generic, but Stevie sings those lyrics like they mean something.

I was wrong. IF I had a Fireflies 45, it's either lost, or I'm having a hard time remembering 1980 details. I went through the 45s I still have, tonight, and no luck.

You know, for a couple DECADES, I could tell you the Mirage concert set list, in order! Oh Well(pun).

$h1t happens.....

According to page 22 of this February 1981 edition of Billboard, "Farmer's Daughter" received some airplay in Cincinnati, although "Fireflies" was comparatively played on more radio stations.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Ar...1981-02-07.pdf

I suppose Steve's voice had a more guaranteed commercial effect? So no surprise.

But in my inner universe (home) I've played Farmer's Daughter way more times than Fireflies.

Checking the Tango in the Night 2017 Deluxe edition, it has 4 Remix/Extended/12”/etc. versions of Big Love. Seven Wonders, Everywhere and Little Lies have 2. Family Man have also 4 remixes. I wonder if Lindsey was the one who came up with the idea or pushed to produce those remixes, (since his songs has more than the girls), in order to show the band aligned to the 80s.

I don't usually listen to those versions; I don't like them. I don't think it fits the Fleetwood Mac sound. I always found the 12" remixes cool in the sound of bands like OMD or Thompson Twins, not Fleetwood Mac.

Talking about Isn’t it Midnight, it has an “Alternate Mix”, just 3:39, not a remix (a different version from the “Edited Alternate Version” from the 1992 The Chain Boxset). I guess it’s kind of an alternate, not final version but not a commercial remix. Unless someone remembers hearing it on the radio. That confirms they didn’t see that song as a main single. So unfair, and wrong.