A few questions

[He's So Unusual]

Thank you to everyone for your replies It's interesting reading about things like this.

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

The Mac had quite moderate success in the UK right from the off. Some of their earlier stuff, notably "Albatross", "Oh Well", "Black Magic Woman" and "Man of the World" were all relatively big sellers. In the early 70's, success started to drift off as the fashion of the times moved towards glam rock with bands like Slade and The Sweet topping the charts, and then of course the arrival of ABBA (who had a very glam-rock image in the early 70's) dominating the charts. The While Album only reached #23 in the UK charts, despite being a huge smash hit in the states.

The success was still relatively moderate. The band were absolutely an albums group. "Rumours" and "Tusk" both hit number 1, albeit only for a week each. Sales of Mac albums in the UK was never as huge as in the states. "Tango" was the Mac's biggest album in the UK, which launched 6 singles into the chart (Big Love, Seven Wonders, Little Lies, Family Man, Everywhere and Isn't It Midnight) and hit #1 twice between 87 and 88. "Behind The Mask" also hit #1, and was oddly a bigger hit in the UK than in the US.

Stevie's solo career has never been huge here, mainly because she never promoted it. The only heavy promotion she did for a solo record here was "The Other Side of the Mirror", and as a result the album hit #3. Her biggest hit apart from that was "Bella Donna" which hit #11. Although she did get airplay, there were no TV appearances in the UK for any of her solo material until 1989. And indeed, she didn't tour here until 1989.

The Mac's credibility has never really been in doubt here, but it was certainly added to with "The Dance" and the appearance at the 1998 Brit Awards and receiving the award for "Outstanding contribution to music". That was really when the legend status happened.

I wonder if Stevie's albums would have charted higher in the UK had she come over and promoted more and toured. I think The Other Side of the Mirror and Rooms on Fire benefited a little from the UK success of Tango in the Night. According to the official Charts Company, Rock a Little has spent 22 weeks on the UK album chart, the most for any Stevie album, despite only peaking at #30. How strange. Other than Rooms on Fire, what solo songs have received airplay in the UK? I've only ever heard Edge of Seventeen on Radio 2 twice, everything else has been Fleetwood Mac.

Originally Posted by chiliD

It took me a LONG time (about 10 listens) to warm up to Tusk. It wasn't an "instantly likeable" album. But it was definitely one that took some warming up to...wasn't until I heard some of the songs live in concert did I start enjoying the album itself.

It took me a while to get into Tusk. Stevie's songs caught my attention instantly, especially Sara, while the majority of Lindsey's and some of Christine's I shamefully dismissed as filler at first. Finally, after playing it and playing it many times, I got it and now regard it as my favourite FM album.