Why does no one hate Rumours?
 

Ok, maybe the word “hate” is too extreme and I used to caught your attention, but in general that’s my perception. I don’t know anybody that has told me “I can’t stand the Rumours album” or the Fleetwood Mac band. Maybe there are those who just don’t like them, but that’s far from “Hey, change that radio that I can’t stand that Rumours song!”.

My point is, Rumours is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. By 1990 it had sold twenty million plus, and today it is reported 40 million copies have been sold. It was at the top of the Billboard 200 for 31 non-consecutive weeks, and within the top ten in dozen of countries.

But I’ve never heard people complaining about Rumours. Why should I? Well, If I recall other “phenomenal” successes, I know people that didn’t stand Saturday Night Fever and/or The Bee Gees. I know people that hated Michael Jackson, since Thriller appeared (they liked Off The Wall album and his previous works but stopped liking him after Thriller). Same with Madonna Whitney and many more.

Was Rumours a real phenomenon? Well the band thought so, and according to several sources, specially Lindsey thought so cause that was the main reason for Tusk to be what it was. Even Mick wrote that Lindsey was especially perturbed; he felt that with the success of Rumours, "the work" was being ignored in favor of "the phenomenon".

Today, even Gen Z people knows who Michael Jackson and Madonna are. But most of them don’t know or recognize a Fleetwood Mac song, except for Dreams but thanks to a tik tok viral video of a middle-aged man skateboarding to the song and lip-syncing Stevie's vocal.

So what kind of success had Rumours back in 1977 to stay on for 31 weeks? Definitely the sales volume. But compared to other top albums of all times, was it played quite a bit on the radios? And after its momentum, was it still played on the radio? Or was it sort of forgotten or skipped over by DJs, and that helped avoid the saturation?

It was a monster hit as soon as GYOW hit the airwaves. Then Dreams, Don't Stop, You make loving fun etc... They were THE group of 1977.

They don't hate it because Christine McVie was all over the airwaves!:D

I disagree with your premise some. Many Gen Z people will recognize some songs from Rumours. Some of them are in commercials.
I was watching an interview with one of Madonna's back up singers she had during the peak of her success and stayed with her for years. Her daughters are aware their mom was the back up singer but don't know any of the songs. They watch on youtube and say "There is Mom" but they are not into Madonna and don't know her music.
Hate is a strong word. I don't think anyone hates Rumours. Even if you are not into Fleetwood Mac someone may say they like or can appreciate some of the songs. The only people that hated Rumours were the ones that felt an oversaturation with Rumours #1 for so long. But Tusk changed all that :lol:

Sure they were. And that's exactly why I'm surprised they didn't consequently oversaturate people, or so I remember. I'm a big Rumours fan, it's my favorite album and listen to it often. And I don't have friends that tell me Please change that record. But I have had friends who didn't like me playing Bee Gees or MJ on my car. So I'm a little puzzled when I compare the success of those albums. It's a mystery to me.

They'd have had a couple hits and been done, without her.

Yea, that magic had to have all 5. Many don't realize it.

Steve Simels loved the 1975 album but thought the only good track on the follow-up was GYOW.

Hilburn of the LA Times thought Rumours was too bland, but he came around on Tusk.

I was 15 when Rumours came out. I just remember loving everything they did. I scoured the magazine racks for articles and photos. Saw them on the Rock Awards and the Grammys. There was no social media then, so I don't think anyone thought that there was too much oversaturation. It boils down to Rumours just being a magical album I think. I know it sounds silly, but I'm listening to it today and I still feel the same about those same songs I first heard in 1977. Almost 50 years ago.

Well I felt oversaturated with Bee Gees and Michael Jackson, in spite of being a fan. Saturday Night Fever was a landslide. The white suits, the clubs imitating 2001 Oddisey, and the soundtrack on every radio, there were even "The Bee Gees Hour" with current and past songs. Bee Gees on radios, on elevators, on cinemas before the movie, it was pandemic. It lasted few years, although gradually decreasing. I guess it as after Barbra's Guilty album when many people already hated Bee Gees.

Same with Michael Jackson, a local radio couldn't decide which song to put at number 1. So they announce a tie! Beat It and Billy Jean. Few months later a local radio played the Thriller video audio track and the DJ liked to describe the scenes (the werewolf, Michael eating pop corn), with the screams and everything.

My first thought is I can't imagine what it would have been like in days of social media, but I actually think that would have prevented that kind of saturation.

The band and record label made the decision to stop after four singles even though they probably could have achieved several additional hits from the album. This could have helped stifle any further overexposure. Whereas it's not incredibly unusual to release six singles from an album now, it was far less common in the 1970s. Aja and Hotel California were both massive and each had three singles. If anything, it was ambitious for an album to receive four singles. To my knowledge, Fleetwood Mac was the first band to achieve four top ten singles from the same album, which would later be dwarfed by Thriller with seven. I'm sure "The Chain" could have made a decent chart run as could "Second Hand News", but a seventh theoretical single from Rumours would be less certain (either "Gold Dust Woman" or "I Don't Want to Know" perhaps).

I'd choose Songbird as a seventh. Don't know if it would reach the top ten list, but I think it had made a decent peak position too. If Barbra's Evergreen reached N.1 in 1976, Songbird could have reached a good peak too.

Hi there! Personally, I'm tired, or bored of Rumours and the signature of "BEST FM album". I like it, I like some songs...But definitely is not the best. Commercially maybe, but in terms of quality, it's a bit far away from that... :sorry: Many people in '77 was on it because of the broken relationships and that kind of...morb?? And that was repeated over the years, but '77...Even In The Quietest Moments by Supertramp was good too, Animals by Pink Floyd was great too, News Of The World by Queen was interesting too, Out Of The Blue by ELO was cool too!! So Rumours won only because of the broken relationships??

Of course is my opinion! Everybody loves Rumours and think that it's truly cool and great, but I'm not able to think the same. Many albums from the 68-74 days are better and, incredibly or not for many people, some of the 79-95 are too.

I've been thinking about it these days, so thank you so much for share the thread! :wavey: :wavey:

If you see the social network rankings of the 10 best FM songs (youtube, instagram, tiktok...), sometimes half of them are from Rumours (GYOW, Don't Stop, Dreams, YMLF, The Chain...), and the rest are from other "Rumours era" albums, of course... (Rhiannon, SYLM, Little Lies, Seven Wonders, Everywhere...)

But are them really good? Is the entire album really good? I can make a Top 10 of best or great songs of the band, and for sure none from Rumours will appear!! So I would say no, I don't hate Rumours, but I dislike it so much.
It's not a matter of negative (or maybe), but it's also about quality I guess...

In terms of singles releases, in retrospect I think they should have released Silver Springs as a non-album single. That’s what the Beatles used to do- they had their albums but the accompanying single releases were stand alone songs. Go Your Own Way could have had a different B side.

I don't remember hearing Silver Springs on the radio in the 70s. Was it often played on US or other countries radios? I don't know what the record label's deal with the radio stations is. I understand that the singles are for promoting the band and the album, but is there an agreement about playing the side A more than side B?

I remember buying the Donna Spring Affairs single in 1977. But shortly after hearing it on the radio, what played the most was the B-side, Winter Melody.

I rarely heard Silver Springs. I did hear the Chain quite a lot on the radio. Also, Songbird and IDWK, once in a blue moon.

Later in the 80's, I would hear GDW, a lot on the radio.

I rarely play Rumours' IDWK. But the Early Version included in Disc 3 of the 2013 More From The Recording Sessions, that became a favorite. Lindsey rocks there.

I'm talking about Cleveland and Los Angeles radio waves, (back then).

The album's status as a commercial juggernaut and the recognizability of several songs from ''Rumours'' renders it an easy pick as the band's best album. Take a look at nearly any list ranking the band's studio albums and you're bound to see ''Rumours'' at number one; anything lower than this ranking is almost unthinkable for these publications. At this point, it's essentially written into the laws of nature that Rumours is the best Fleetwood Mac album. All of this comes at the expense of several of the band's other albums getting overlooked. I very much appreciate that nearly everyone under the sun has heard at least one track from Rumours - it represents their work very well. I also believe that several of their other albums are worthy of the same attention, including Future Games, Mystery to Me, Tusk, etc.

Rumours has it all……

Duets/ I Don’t Want to Know S&L and Don’t Stop C&L
Rockers/ Go Your Own Way and You Make Lovin Fun
Acoustic/ Never Going Back Again
Mid tempo/ Dreams/ The Chain/ Second Hand News
Slow and deep/ Songbird and Oh Daddy
Dark/ Gold Dust Woman

Classic bside Silver Springs

Three voices and styles equally distributed, something for everyone.

And the Expanded and Deluxe releases have the best bonus material. Though it may be because of its success, but great tracks anyway.

But I think Tusk Deluxe and Expande should also have a lot of varied bonus material, but including so many IKINW and Tusk song versions wasn't the best idea if there were any other tracks left out.
And Tango wasn't that great in terms of bonus material either.

Lindsey's infamous mantra of not wanting to make a Rumours II after the success of Rumours plays a big role in my view. Fleetwood Mac (Lindsey) is infamous for their "sound" but at the same time the band didn't rest on their laurels and attempt to duplicate the Rumours formula for what ended up being their subsequent three albums. Mirage is looked at as being a "safer" album than Tusk was but as was noted in another thread, there's still elements in that album's songs that have an edge. I really believe Rumours (and Fleetwood Mac) benefit from the fact they didn't try to copy and paste what they did for that album.

As far as my personal opinion, Rumours isn't my favorite album from the band. I don't hate it but I hate that it overshadows so many other interesting and great things from people. Rumours is without a doubt a shining moment in Fleetwood Mac's history but the band's overall story is so rich and deep. When you know all that, I think the success and lasting legacy of Rumours stands out more.

The deluxe editions of all five Rumours era albums offer at least something compelling. The 2015 edition of Tusk gave alternate mixes of several tracks, sometimes even 5+ variations at the expense of any outtakes. At the very least, the 2004 edition of Tusk included "Kiss and Run" and "Farmer's Daughter", but neither versions included "The Dealer" or "Smile at You". We had to wait until the deluxe edition of Mirage for that song. That release provided the best of both worlds of having alternate mixes and ample outtakes, although to my ears, the mixes chosen for "Goodbye Angel" and "Teen Beat" are worse than what was found on 25 Years the Chain. The deluxe edition of Tango in the Night leaned a bit too heavily on the remixes, which I am somewhat ambivalent about, and certain tracks such as "Caroline", "Family Man", and "Welcome to the Room Sara" were not accompanied with early versions. I would have been curious to hear what a rough take of "Family Man" sounded like, as I have yet to find anything of the sort on YouTube.

As mentioned above, the deluxe edition of Rumours is fine, but I don't find the material all that appealing, perhaps with the exception of the more ornate arrangements of "Never Going Back Again" and the sparser arrangement of "Gold Dust Woman".

Rumours is my favorite album. I agree the band's overall story is so rich and deep. That's why it's my favorite band. So I see those two as separate things. Many times we play "what if" games about what if Tusk were a one disc album, what if Christine never left and it became In The Meantime Say You Will, what Tango would be like if Stevie were in better shape/health in 1987, what if the Mirage tour were longer, What if BuckVie... etc. And interesting theories emerge about all of that. But this is what there is, and all those things beyond Rumours are so interesting too.