[David]

Originally Posted by skcin

This question is mainly for longtime fans - I was 12 when it came out, and I clearly remember 7 Wonders, Little Lies & Big Love being very big hits. But at the time, I didn't know exactly who Mac was, and couldn't connect the dots. I just thought they were a good band with some awesome hit songs, but I didn't realize they had done Gypsy & GYOW.

So, was the success of TITN a bit unexpected? It had been 5 years since Mirage and I assume the Mac wasn't all that popular anymore, or at least not at the forefront of the public's consciousness.

Madonna was the biggest name in the business. She was everywhere. Fleetwood Mac was still a pretty big name, though--it was kind of like the status they had in 1997/1998: not the hippest kid on the block by a long shot but still a big name as an 'elder statesman' band, & still impressive commercially (probably thanks to Stevie).

So, when you heard it was coming out, were you nervous that it wouldn't do well? Excited?

Yeah, I was really excited. I went to that big splashy benefit at the sports arena in the late summer 1986, where Lindsey performed & said that the band was finishing up its best album ever, so we were pretty excited. We were definitely waiting for it, month by month.

What about upon its release - did you love it or did it take time to grow on you?

A few weeks before the album came out, the radio started playing Big Love, & I really liked that one. Even the L.A. Times loved that one, calling it one of the best singles so far that year. About a week before the album was released, Jim Ladd (surprise surprise) played the whole album on KMET or KLOS or wherever he was at that point, & I listened to the broadcast & taped it, & I remember just loving the sound of all the songs as they unfolded one after another. I remember thinking the whole pentatonic thing going through so much of it & the crystal clarity of it all were just about the most beautiful thing I had ever heard from Fleetwood Mac. I had a Sony Walkman then & I remember thinking that I was going to be listening to THIS for a long time.

When it became a hit, with videos all over MTV, were you shocked?

Yes that was a little weird. Little Lies, especially...pop-rock radio in Los Angeles just kept playing it & playing it, twelve times a day every day. People at class in college were humming it & you walked into a store or a mall & there it was. It was slightly weird to me. It wasn't like Rumours because the band themselves weren't hip that way anymore, but all this airplay was bizarre. It was like these songs--Little Lies, Seven Wonders, Everywhere--just got stuck in people's brains & they couldn't get rid of them even though they didn't really love them. The songs were so hook-filled & that's what effective hooks do: they insinuate themselves in somebody's brain even when that person doesn't want it to happen. Have you ever started humming a song that you didn't even like? That's because of the damn hook, & that's what Tango had.