Christine’s 10 Favourite songs of all time
 

I’m sure this has been listed before, but can’t find it, so pasting again just in case. Apparently this list came from a BBC Radio 2 interview

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/christi...te-songs-ever/

Christine McVie’s 10 favourite songs:

‘God Only Knows’ – The Beach Boys
‘Babylon Sisters’ – Steely Dan
‘Raspberry Beret’ – Prince & The Revolution
‘Races are Run’ – Buckingham Nicks
‘Let’s Dance’ – David Bowie
‘That Ole Devil Called Love’ – Billie Holliday
‘I Know You’re Out There Somewhere’ – The Moody Blues
‘Man of the World’ – Fleetwood Mac
‘Smoke on the Water’ – Deep Purple
‘Mexico’ – James Taylor

I like that she had varied tastes. At first glance, it's curious to find "Man of the World" and "Let's Dance" on the same list, or Prince with Deep Purple—a list she mentioned in 2013, if I understand correctly. But that variety is so interesting. I would have a lot of questions about why she likes one song or another.

I would have thought she'd choose another Bowie song (not that I don't like "Let's Dance," I love it, but I have other favorites of his), that's a surprise.

I am surprised she loves “Races are Run,” which seems to me a filler track, nothing special. But hey, at least it wasn’t “Lola”!

I remember in a separate interview her discussing how much she loved Prince’s “Raspberry Beret.” This didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, the tune sounds like an homage to the Fleetwood Mac sound Christine helped shape. Listen to the piano on the Prince tune. It’s played very much like Christine plays that instrument on “Hold Me” and “Got a Hold on Me.”

Races are Run is actually one of my fave songs on the bucknicks album... it's a fairly simple song but to me it really showcases the magic of L&S when they harmonize, just something in how they sound together gives me chills. Like the verse that starts 'tell me i'm wrong..' argh so beautiful. i wonder if that's what chris loved about it also.

will have to go have another listen to Raspberry Beret.

--Lis

It is a varied taste. But her music is varied too. I love that Smoke On The Water is on the list. I know she also loved Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones. Not sure why its not on this list. I am no huge Bowie fan but would like to debate her China Girl is a better song than Let's Dance.

She told the story that she was in a hotel room late one night and fell asleep with the TV on and she woke up to Raspberry Beret and instantly fell in love with it. She said something like it made her feel like getting out of bed and dancing. Not surprised Steely Dan is on the list. One of my favorite Chris stories was her describing her Hollywood Hills home that looked over the valley and she would be cranking the album Gaucho and she said it would echo through the canyon. What fantastic parties and views that place must have seen. I am not familiar with Babylon Sisters and I see it was a single only released as a single in the UK. But the big hit from the album was Hey Nineteen.

Definitely!

she always loved Steely Dan. I have an old interview w the band when they were in Japan in 1990 and they asked each member for their favorite song, and chris said Babylon Sisters. i was never a big fan of that song lol... i love Peg though.

--Lis

She had Smoke On The Water, Deep Purple, because it was about the river in Montreaux where she recorded her solo album. The river had caught fire.

She had fond memories of making the 1984 album.

Yes! Especially putting the grand piano on the mountain and waiting for the sun to be right for the photo shoot. Today they would just photoshop it.

I like that her list contains songs that are special to her or hold some sort of meaning to her. That said, objectively, it’s not the most inspiring set of songs.
Ashes to Ashes is Bowies best IMO.

I think that album cover was done back in UK. I'm not 100% sure, but my memory is telling me that I was disappointed when I found that out. I know it did make her docu. They filmed it as it was being shot.

Again, I could be wrong.

DING DING DING WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER
You are correct. I had no idea they had mountains like that in the UK

Here is from wikipedia. The original concept was the piano keys flying off a piano similar to her backdrop on her solo tour stage. But once they got set it seemed rather silly and they did the Got A Hold on Me concept with the red scarf. What a concept. They arrived at 6 am in the cold and frost and waited all day until 3 pm for the perfect lighting. No one would do that today.

Larry Vigon, who had worked with Fleetwood Mac on the cover designs for albums like Rumours and Tusk,[42] was put in charge of the album's art direction and design.[33]: 31:05–31:09  He was responsible for choosing the photographer, getting an image that suited "the musical feel of the album", and designing the "look of the package".[33]: 31:10–31:22  The original concept for the cover art was a photo of a piano with some of its keys flying off.[33]: 31:34–31:38  To develop this idea, Vigon and Jeff Ayeroff, who was Warner Bros. Records' creative director at the time, showed McVie Brian Griffin's photography portfolio.[33]: 31:39–32:07  McVie was particularly drawn to one of Griffin's landscape shots, which featured a person in a field, and decided that she wanted the album's cover image to be taken outdoors.[33]: 31:47–32:00  The team agreed and Ayeroff suggested that they take "the piano out in the field".[33]: 32:01–32:12 

The photograph for the album's cover was taken two hours outside of London, in Wiltshire.[19] During the photo-shoot, the team agreed that the flying piano keys looked "really silly", so they decided to repurpose the idea for the single sleeve of "Got a Hold on Me" instead.[33]: 32:14–32:38  McVie remembered that the place looked "gorgeous", but that it "was so cold that the frost was about an inch thick on the trees".[19] The group arrived at six in the morning and, in order to capture the optimal lighting, waited until three in the afternoon to take the photo.[19] Jeanette Leech of Dig! commented that the length of the photo-shoot was a "good metaphor" for the album, as it was "the product of a patient artist waiting for the perfect time".[

Wow, that's more than I had in my head! I love that she made the decision for the cover to be outdoors.

It seems he worked in several Mac albums, according to his website. I found this picture from his new book "Serious Play", where he mentions Mick, Lindsey and Christine as contributors.

https://www.larryvigon.com/

https://www.larryvigon.com/album-covers


Loved looking at that page ^^^