Is Hold Me the Mac's most successful single?

[aleuzzi]

Those year-end stats MacFan cited tell us a lot about a song’s initial run. In terms of Billboard Chart action, “Hold Me” was huge. I remember it being everywhere in 1982—and through the first half of the 80s. But if we play the long game, songs that ranked a lot less in the year-end stats have become more iconic. GYOW, Little Lies, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me...

Dreams and Don’t Stop never stopped being ubiquitous.

But Hold Me was a monster in its day. It’s still a GREAT pop song.

[Macfan4life]

An easier way to explain it is that Hold Me was in the top 10 longer than Dreams thus making it a bigger hit. Locked at #4 for 7 weeks is not only unusual but insane. Even #1 songs usually dont stay in the top 10 for that long let alone locked in a high spot. No doubt the song dragged Mirage to the #1 spot.

[Macfan4life]

There is a reason why you hear Dreams more than Hold Me today. The album Rumours has sold over 20 million copies and every song whether single or not from that album is heard every day on some radio station.
Hold Me was on a mildly successful album and does not have the classic rock chops that Rumours has. While Mirage is a great album, it is not considered a rock masterpiece like Rumours. If Hold Me was on Rumours, it would still be played like the rest of the Rumours songs.

This thread was just pointing out that Hold Me was technically a more successful single than Dreams. Hold Me was in the top ten for almost 3 months. Dreams was in the top ten about a month. Dreams just had an easier ride to the #1 spot which only lasted 1 week btw.
I am not hating on Dreams, just pointing out a little known fact. I love little known facts

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

There is a reason why you hear Dreams more than Hold Me today. The album Rumours has sold over 20 million copies and every song whether single or not from that album is heard every day on some radio station.
Hold Me was on a mildly successful album and does not have the classic rock chops that Rumours has. While Mirage is a great album, it is not considered a rock masterpiece like Rumours. If Hold Me was on Rumours, it would still be played like the rest of the Rumours songs.

This thread was just pointing out that Hold Me was technically a more successful single than Dreams. Hold Me was in the top ten for almost 3 months. Dreams was in the top ten about a month. Dreams just had an easier ride to the #1 spot which only lasted 1 week btw.
I am not hating on Dreams, just pointing out a little known fact. I love little known facts

Well at least you're confident in one thing...that you're always right.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

Well at least you're confident in one thing...that you're always right.

Never question me

This was just pure statistics. But I did give commentary/opinion in the end. No one is right all the time (although i am so close ) I love everyone's opinion on the board. We have very diverse opinions on everything. There are a few posters who spend too much time drooling and worshipping a few poster's comments than giving their own opinion

I will do ANYTHING for Love but I wont do THAT

[elle]

Hold Me is in my top 10, possibly even top 5 Rumours-era FM songs.

it's amazing little pop song, fun and so well crafted. Second Hand News and Hold Me just have everything and beyond a pop song should have, imo.

Dreams is boring, was boring on the album and has been pretty unlistenable live for a long time now. not really sure why Dreams has been even introduced to this discussion. the only fun part of Dreams are ridiculous weather-related lyrics.

[jwd]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

There is a reason why you hear Dreams more than Hold Me today. The album Rumours has sold over 20 million copies and every song whether single or not from that album is heard every day on some radio station.
Hold Me was on a mildly successful album and does not have the classic rock chops that Rumours has. While Mirage is a great album, it is not considered a rock masterpiece like Rumours. If Hold Me was on Rumours, it would still be played like the rest of the Rumours songs.

This thread was just pointing out that Hold Me was technically a more successful single than Dreams. Hold Me was in the top ten for almost 3 months. Dreams was in the top ten about a month. Dreams just had an easier ride to the #1 spot which only lasted 1 week btw.
I am not hating on Dreams, just pointing out a little known fact. I love little known facts

That's not facts, that's pure conjecture. If you suggest the success of a song is based on its length of time it spent on the charts, and in just the top 10 at that, you would also have to weigh the strength of the songs it was competing against. Probably a safer and more accurate way to judge success would be sales or how music stands the test of time. I love "Dreams" as much today as I did when I first heard it. Never gets old to me. I also love "Hold Me", but I just disagree that it was Mac's most successful single . It's really hard to gauge the "most successful" single in such a binary way that you have.

Success is a very subjective word.

[jwd]

Originally Posted by elle

Hold Me is in my top 10, possibly even top 5 Rumours-era FM songs.

it's amazing little pop song, fun and so well crafted. Second Hand News and Hold Me just have everything and beyond a pop song should have, imo.

Dreams is boring, was boring on the album and has been pretty unlistenable live for a long time now. not really sure why Dreams has been even introduced to this discussion. the only fun part of Dreams are ridiculous weather-related lyrics.

Well damn, I'm really surprised that YOU would wonder that.

[Street_Dreamer]

I've mentioned this several times before but the deluxe reissue really turned Hold Me into a different song for me. I've always been a fan but it just dazzled with the remix where you could finally hear the vocals and production values like they were meant to be as opposed to the original terrible CD mix.

To answer the question though, I think Dreams holds that title not just because it made it to number one but because for the general public, it seems to be the "standard" that people relate to Fleetwood Mac.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by jwd

That's not facts, that's pure conjecture. If you suggest the success of a song is based on its length of time it spent on the charts, and in just the top 10 at that, you would also have to weigh the strength of the songs it was competing against. Probably a safer and more accurate way to judge success would be sales or how music stands the test of time. I love "Dreams" as much today as I did when I first heard it. Never gets old to me. I also love "Hold Me", but I just disagree that it was Mac's most successful single . It's really hard to gauge the "most successful" single in such a binary way that you have.

Success is a very subjective word.

You are missing the point. I did not define success. The charts did. I personally disagree with charts all the time. I hate charts. The chart was not of my making. Its actually on the Fleetwood Mac charts page. I just cut and paste. I never had control of any hit list. I never created the list. I just reported it.
Conjecture has nothing to do with it. I mentioned Dreams because it was the Mac's only #1 song and is fairly common to believe that its the Mac's biggest hit, no?

Dont blame me. Blame all the radio DJs across the USA in the 70s and 80s and all the criteria for creating pop radio lists. I am not saying what is the better song, just revealing the statistics. You argument loses water. If you are proud and believe Dreams was a #1 song then you cant discard the same criteria that made Dreams #1 for 1 week and that states Hold Me was a bigger hit with more weeks in the top 10 and ended up higher on the charts in each of their year's end. You cant have it both ways. Your love of Dreams have nothing to do with the actual statistics. Dont blame it on me.....blame it on the countdown

Sorry

[elle]

Originally Posted by Street_Dreamer

To answer the question though, I think Dreams holds that title not just because it made it to number one but because for the general public, it seems to be the "standard" that people relate to Fleetwood Mac.

is that true though?

Dreams became huge last year, bigger than ever before, because of Apodaca.

but the standard that people think of as FM - seems several songs interchangeably hold that title - goes between Go Your Own Way (i've heard from several people who think that's Stevie's song so that tells you a lot about general audiences and standards!), The Chain and Thunder Only Happens that just recently became known as Dreams

if you are in the UK, then Everywhere and Songbird come into equation. and Little Lies.

if you are college football fan? USC fan? Tusk.

for SN? usually people identify her with Gold Dust Woman, which was never a single. Landslide.

[jwd]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

You are missing the point. I did not define success. The charts did. I personally disagree with charts all the time. I hate charts. The chart was not of my making. Its actually on the Fleetwood Mac charts page. I just cut and paste. I never had control of any hit list. I never created the list. I just reported it.
Conjecture has nothing to do with it. I mentioned Dreams because it was the Mac's only #1 song and is fairly common to believe that its the Mac's biggest hit, no?

Dont blame me. Blame all the radio DJs across the USA in the 70s and 80s and all the criteria for creating pop radio lists. I am not saying what is the better song, just revealing the statistics. You argument loses water. If you are proud and believe Dreams was a #1 song then you cant discard the same criteria that made Dreams #1 for 1 week and that states Hold Me was a bigger hit with more weeks in the top 10 and ended up higher on the charts in each of their year's end. You cant have it both ways. Your love of Dreams have nothing to do with the actual statistics. Dont blame it on me.....blame it on the countdown

Sorry

Perhaps you should have stated that "Hold Me" had the longest stay in the Top 10 of any FM single. That would be a fact, I guess, I'm trusting your info. It doesn't make it the most "successful" single, unless of course you describe success as how many weeks a single stayed in the Top 10.

My opinion that "Dreams" is the Mac's most "successful" is based on my opinion. It's just a feeling.

Like I said success is a very subjective word.

[jbrownsjr]

Homer, I hear Hold Me all the Time. It's so weird. Sirius plays it constantly. I heard it in Ralph's during Covid 2020, for whatever reason. (That's a grocery market). I keep a radio on for the cats at my place and I hear it on the rock station too. They seem to play the same classic rock songs, however.
Gypsy is a very basic and flat demo ( like Dreams) that Lindsey and Macsters made beautiful. The guitar and harmonies are stunning. That's why live, it falls flat. They can't re-create it because there's not a lot to it. The lead vocal on the album is really good. But, hearing her sing it now is excruciating.
Hold Me Live at Christine's show was fantastic compared to the pretty good version we hear on Mirage Forum Show. The Christine McVie band did a great job!

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Never question me

I question you, daily!

[bwboy]

Other possible reasons Hold Me doesn’t get a lot of respect, so to speak, could be that:

- it hasn’t aged all that well.
- it’s very, very poppy. A lot of FM songs are, but they don’t sound quite so annoying. Compare You Make Loving Fun to Hold Me. Both are very poppy but YMLF is much simpler and catchier.
- the video is not very memorable, especially compared to Gypsy. As a FM fan, I like the video a lot, but a casual fan probably couldn’t even recall the video.
- my sister dislikes FM. She says their music is “whiny” LOL. Even though I disagree with her, I can kind of see that, and Hold Me has a whiny sound to it.
- lyrically, I can see why Tusk, Rhiannon, Dreams, Go Your Own Way, and others are remembered more often. Even Little Lies is a more interesting song, lyrically. There is a gravitas to them that Hold Me lacks.