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Old 12-03-2022, 06:04 PM
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Default Top Ten Christine songs

Lots of lists out now, and all pretty wildly divergent. This particular list is from Parade.

Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac wrote or co-wrote eight of the band's songs on their Greatest Hits album and played a range of instruments, including piano, electric keyboards, accordion and clarinet. She told Rolling Stone in 1977 that songwriting wasn't an arduous process for her: “I don’t struggle over my songs. I write them quickly.”

However effortless creativity is for her, the fruits of her labors were phenomenal. The "Songbird" died on Nov. 30, 2022, at age 79, but her music will long outlive her mortal coil. Here are the best Christine McVie Fleetwood Mac songs.

“Oh Daddy"
Mick Fleetwood was the only father in the band when McVie penned "Oh Daddy." While some say the drummer inspired the tune, others say McVie's muse was actually a lighting director on the band's tour crew.

“Hold Me”
McVie penned "Hold Me," Fleetwood Mac's first hit of the 1980s, with co-writer Robbie Patton; the song is said to be about her tumultuous relationship with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. It eventually hit No. 4 and became one of the band's biggest all-time smashes in the U.S. Across the pond, however, the tune didn't quite take—your loss, U.K.!

"Songbird"
McVie's beautiful and personal piano ballad, "Songbird," is a rare solo outing for the singer-songwriter. Its placement on Rumors means it often gets overlooked for more raucous fare like "Go Your Own Way" and "The Chain"—but it also means its softness stands out all the more. “I woke up in the middle of the night and the song just came into my head,” McVie told The Guardian of the tune. “I got out of bed, played it on the little piano I have in my room, and sang it with no tape recorder. I sang it from beginning to end: everything. I can’t tell you quite how I felt; it was as if I’d been visited — it was a very spiritual thing.”

“Say You Love Me”
"Say You Love Me" is pure pop perfection. The tune hit No. 11, tying with Stevie Nicks' heavily lauded "Rhiannon." It's one of Fleetwood Mac's most instantly recognizable songs thanks to its earworm melody.

“Love in Store”
McVie's vocals take the lead in "Love In Store," but it also shows how well she plays with others, as Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham harmonize beautifully with her. Buckingham was also a primary producer on the track with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut.

“Over My Head”
"Over My Head" was Fleetwood Mac's first hit in six years at the time of its release in 1975. McVie wrote the tune about Buckingham, explaining to the BBC, "He was that kind of a guy, he could be cold as ice, and then he could be great. So I took that feeling I was feeling, and I turned it into a song."

“Think About Me”
While McVie was widely praised for her pop sensibilities, "Think About Me" proved she could write a killer rock song as well. Keeping up with her catchy melodies were gritty guitars and some seriously sassy, lovestruck lyrics.

“Little Lies”
While McVie was widely praised for her pop sensibilities, "Think About Me" proved she could write a killer rock song as well. Keeping up with her catchy melodies were gritty guitars and some seriously sassy, lovestruck lyrics.

“You Make Loving Fun”
McVie wrote "You Make Loving Fun" about the band's lighting director, Curry Grant, with whom she was having an affair—but told husband John McVie she wrote it about her dog. While that certainly must have been, er, ruff, it was worth it: The song hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Don’t Stop”
An inescapable, inspiring ditty, "Don't Stop" peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 and has endured ever since. McVie wrote the song about her split from John McVie, explaining, "'Don't Stop' was just a feeling. It just seemed to be a pleasant revelation to have that 'yesterday's gone.' It might have, I guess, been directed more toward John, but I'm just definitely not a pessimist."

Last edited by bwboy; 12-03-2022 at 06:11 PM..
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Old 12-03-2022, 06:17 PM
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From the New York Times:

Christine McVie’s 12 Essential Songs
The singer, songwriter and keyboardist, who died on Wednesday, was a hitmaker for Fleetwood Mac whose crystalline voice and roots in the blues gave her music a distinct emotional punch.

Nov. 30, 2022
The singer, songwriter and keyboardist Christine McVie, who died on Wednesday at 79, was the serene eye of the storm in Fleetwood Mac, one of rock history’s most tumultuous and beloved bands. She was also the glue that held the group together across drastically different eras, joining in 1970 shortly after the departure of its founding member, the blues guitarist Peter Green, and anchoring the band in its more commercially successful second phase, after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came aboard.

Sonically, the edgy Buckingham turned out to be an enriching counterpoint to McVie’s soft-focused style, and their musical collaboration continued up until the end of her recording career, when they released a collaborative album in 2017. But behind the scenes, the deep bond between McVie and Nicks — a mutually supportive friendship that flew in the face of then-prevalent stereotypes about women in music feeling competitive with other women — was also an integral part of what kept the band going. “We felt like, together, we were a force of nature,” Nicks said in a 2013 interview. “And we made a pact, probably in our first rehearsal, that we would never accept being treated as second-class citizens in the music business.”

McVie’s contralto voice had a pure, crystalline tone that gave her solo numbers, perhaps most indelibly the sparse “Rumours” centerpiece “Songbird,” a distinct emotional power. But she clearly enjoyed writing for Buckingham and Nicks, too, and made her mark penning the sorts of rollicking, harmony-driven singalongs that became some of the band’s biggest hits, like “Say You Love Me” and “Don’t Stop.” By the late ’70s, her keyboard playing began to bring soft rock and even new age aesthetics into Fleetwood Mac, but her rhythmic technique always remained grounded in the blues, providing an enduring connection to the band’s earliest days.

Chicken Shack, ‘It’s Okay With Me Baby’ (1968)

Before she married the bassist John McVie and joined his band Fleetwood Mac, Christine Perfect was the keyboardist and singer in a British blues band called Chicken Shack. It had a minor hit in 1969 with a smoldering cover of the Etta James song “I’d Rather Go Blind,” but the band’s debut single, “It’s Okay With Me Baby,” is more interesting to McVie’s evolution as a songwriter. She wrote it herself and sang it with a low, bluesy swagger.

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Say You Love Me’ (1975)

The biggest hit from Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album — and its first as the classic quintet of Christine and John McVie, Buckingham, Nicks and the drummer Mick Fleetwood — was this cheery, mid-tempo track, destined to become one of the band’s signature songs. McVie’s electric piano certainly swings, but the sunny harmonies from Buckingham and Nicks are evidence of Fleetwood Mac’s new, pop-oriented direction.


Fleetwood Mac, ‘Over My Head’ (1975)

McVie’s songs often captured the blissful feeling of getting carried away, even inundated, by romantic love. On this soft-rock classic, she recognizes the risks of falling for a mercurial partner (“Your mood is like a circus wheel, it changes all the time”) but ultimately cherishes the sensation of succumbing: “I’m over my head,” she sings in a husky croon, “but it sure feels nice.”

Fleetwood Mac, ‘You Make Loving Fun’ (1977)

The high-budget studio wizardry of Fleetwood Mac’s epochal “Rumours” is on full display here, particularly in the pristinely funky sound of McVie’s opening riff on the Hohner Clavinet. McVie wrote the song about her new flame, the Fleetwood Mac lighting director Curry Grant, but according to Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel’s book “Making Rumors,” McVie initially “told everyone the song was about her dog, instead of about Curry, to avoid flare-ups.”

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Songbird’ (1977)

As delicately elegant as a falling snowflake, this McVie piano ballad is Fleetwood Mac’s most enduring tear-jerker. It’s also, perhaps, the most brilliant moment of sequencing on “Rumours”: a restorative respite between sides and in the middle of some of the band’s most rousing rockers, “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain.” “I think it was about nobody and everybody,” McVie said in an episode of the documentary series “Classic Albums.” “In retrospect, it seemed to me more like a little anthem than anything else. It was for everybody. It was like a little prayer almost.”

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Think About Me’ (1979)

Here’s McVie, as a songwriter, doing her best Lindsey Buckingham, rising to her bandmate’s challenge of bringing a punkier edge to the band’s sprawling 1979 double album “Tusk.” Buckingham and McVie always had special musical connection, and few Mac songs capture it better than this one: Their vocals sound particularly simpatico on the chorus harmonies, and McVie’s hard-driving electric piano provides a fitting complement to Buckingham’s fiery riffs.

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Never Make Me Cry’ (1979)

And here’s McVie doing her best Christine McVie. An understated, underappreciated gem buried on the C side of “Tusk,” this tender heartstring-tugger places McVie’s angelic voice front and center, the faintest hints of guitar and keyboards forming little more than an ethereal mist in the background.

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Only Over You’ (1982)

Speaking of underappreciated gems, this soulful McVie tune is a highlight of the band’s 1982 album, “Mirage,” with all due respect to the bouncy, irresistibly fun “Hold Me,” which McVie co-wrote with the singer-songwriter Robbie Patton.

Christine McVie, ‘Got a Hold on Me’ (1984)

McVie only released three solo albums:the bluesy “Christine Perfect” (1970), the low-key “In the Meantime” (2004) and, most memorably, a self-titled release in 1984, when the other members of the band were focusing on their solo careers. “Got a Hold on Me” sounds, in the best way, like it could have easily appeared on any ’80s Fleetwood Mac album — it even has Buckingham on lead guitar.

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Everywhere’ (1987)

A modern classic that’s still everywhere — including on a certain ubiquitous car commercial circa fall 2022 — this sparkling smash from the band’s late-80s return “Tango in the Night” remains one of Fleetwood Mac’s high watermarks. “I wanna be with you everywhere,” McVie sings on that infectious chorus, as succinct an encapsulation of falling in love as pop music can manage, as the sleek, glimmering production perfectly mirrors the butterflies she’s singing about.

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Don’t Stop’ (1997)

When McVie first wrote the anthemic “Don’t Stop,” she was trying to create a song that would cheer up her ex-husband, and also hoping that Fleetwood Mac would survive the making of “Rumours.” Twenty years later, when the band reunited for the live LP “The Dance,” the song had not only helped “Rumours” become one of the best-selling albums in history, but it had also been the campaign song of the then-current president. This celebratory finale from “The Dance” — featuring an entire marching band! — turned out to be, in retrospect, a bittersweet snapshot: “The Dance” would be the final Fleetwood Mac album to feature McVie. The following year, she left the band to live a quieter life off the road for nearly two decades; she returned for a tour in 2014.

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, ‘Feel About You’ (2017)

McVie’s final album was, fittingly, a reunion with her former bandmate, and an effortless-sounding display of their particular musical chemistry. Like much of “Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie,” the doo-wop-esque “Feel About You” has a buoyant, playful spirit. After a long silence, it was a welcome return for McVie, and proof that the songbird was still drawing inspiration from places old and new.
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Old 12-03-2022, 06:18 PM
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1. You Make Loving Fun
2. Over My Head
3. Little Lies
4. Everywhere
5. Say You Love Me
6. Honey Hi
7. Brown Eyes
8. Got A Hold on Me
9. Oh Daddy
10 Songbird
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Old 12-03-2022, 06:26 PM
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From the Guardian:

Christine Perfect – I’d Rather Go Blind (1970)
Before she was Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, she was solo artist Christine Perfect – a rock’n’roll moniker if there ever was one. Her self-titled 1970 LP (later cheekily retitled The Legendary Christine Perfect Album) features a handful of originals and select covers. Among the highlights is a lovelorn take on 1967’s I’d Rather Go Blind, a hit for both Etta James and McVie’s late 60s band Chicken Shack. McVie ruminates on a broken heart, her velvety voice sounding wistful next to hymn-like organ and reverent horns. However, the brave facade cracks, and her voice rises with despair upon mention of her beloved’s affection, revealing hidden regret.

Fleetwood Mac – Show Me a Smile (1971)
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham linking up with Fleetwood Mac in 1975 inarguably supercharged the band’s creativity. However, the group took their first steps toward megastardom when Christine McVie joined as a full-fledged member starting with 1971’s Future Games. She wasted no time making an impact on the band’s sound, writing the dreamy album closer Show Me a Smile. Notable for a tranquil melody that gently twists and turns like a kite being batted around by the wind, the song embodies McVie’s straight-shooting lyrical approach. Its urgent, explosive chorus, meanwhile, illuminates an acuity with dynamics that later propelled Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits.

Fleetwood Mac – Why (1973)
The McVie-penned Fleetwood Mac songs that didn’t end up as singles were often just as compelling as the familiar hits. The fan favourite Why, tucked away as the last song on Mystery to Me, offers emotional whiplash in the aftermath of a breakup. With sparse acoustic guitar and torchy, bluesy piano as a foundation, McVie first rationalises that the heartbreak is temporary (“The hurt I feel will simply melt away”). Later, however, she sounds in agony over her ex’s indifference and her own subsequent pain, asking “Why don’t you love me?” while strings crescendo and swell around her.

Fleetwood Mac – Say You Love Me (1975)
Fleetwood Mac became a pop-rock juggernaut starting with their 1975 self-titled LP, the first full-length to feature Nicks and Buckingham. However, McVie wrote the bulk of the album’s charting singles, led by the jangly Say You Love Me. Buoyed up by her forceful, regal piano playing, the song explores how to navigate the whims of a mercurial significant other. McVie sounds firm but slightly exasperated as she calls out the hot-and-cold behaviour of her partner and interrogates her own insecurities. In the end, she asks for emotional clarity, pointedly repeating the phrase “Say that you love me” several times.


Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop (1977)
Rumours was an album born out of real-life romantic tumult, imperfect breakups and messy affairs. McVie herself had divorced bassist John McVie in 1976, although she preferred to stay optimistic in the wake of the marriage ending. Don’t Stop espouses the power of looking on the bright side of things, with lyrics about keeping an eye on the future and avoiding dwelling on yesterdays. Although Buckingham mostly handled lead vocals – adding an extra layer of intrigue given his up-and-down relationship with Nicks – McVie propelled the song’s upbeat attitude with fluid bar-band boogie piano, as if entertaining a rousing honky-tonk.

Fleetwood Mac – Songbird (1977)
Songbird was an outlier on Rumours: an unabashed declaration of love featuring a stripped-down arrangement. Recorded in an auditorium with McVie on voice and Steinway piano, the song boasts some of her most tender lyrics (“And the songbirds are singing / Like they know the score”) and Buckingham contributing barely perceptible acoustic guitar. However, the sparse instrumentation was also an ideal canvas for her meditative playing style and keening vocals, especially since co-producer Ken Caillat used multiple mics to soak up the room’s echoing ambience. Songbird later took on even greater poignancy when it was covered as the title track on the posthumous 1998 album from folk singer Eva Cassidy.

Fleetwood Mac- Think About Me (1979j
McVie didn’t just excel at writing delicate ballads and introspective folk songs – she could also do biting rock gems with the best of them. On the sonic grab bag Tusk, she wrote Think About Me, a swaggering tune with a Stones-y blues-rock groove and stinging keyboards. Fittingly, the song’s title is a command rather than a suggestion. McVie’s protagonist acknowledges being low-maintenance, but warns they have no patience for a wishy-washy partner who isn’t all-in on the relationship, and implores the other person to stop being so self-centered.

Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me (1982)
At the start of the 80s, McVie helped propel Fleetwood Mac up the pop charts once again, co-writing the propulsive Mirage hits Love in Store and Hold Me. The latter boasts fanciful music that felt more lighthearted after Tusk’s many laboured experiments: after starting off with several bars of twinkling piano, Hold Me blooms into an effervescent pop song with whirling percussion and braided vocal harmonies. Lyrically, however, there was more uncertainty lurking. McVie’s narrator is casual about letting a potential partner know he’s available, while at the same time lamenting: “You hold the percentage/I’m the fool paying’ the dues.”

Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere (1987)
Thirty-five years after its release, Fleetwood Mac’s lush Tango in the Night LP remains a vibrant cultural touchstone. That’s largely due to the effervescent Everywhere, a gauzy song that’s endured thanks to high-profile commercials (a 2013 ad for the mobile phone company 3) and faithful live makeovers (Paramore’s ebullient 2017 cover). Everywhere also just so happens to be one of the best pop songs ever written about the first blushes of infatuation, courtesy of McVie’s hopeful vocal tone and joyous chorus (“I want to be with you everywhere”) and giddy keyboards that sparkle like sun glinting off the ocean.

Fleetwood Mac – Little Lies (1987)
Coping with romantic distress isn’t easy, although there are ways to ameliorate the pain. On the shimmering, synth-heavy Little Lies – a co-write with then-husband Eddy Quintela – McVie offers one solution: she requests that a soon-to-be-ex “tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies” to cushion the blow of rejection and the realisation that a relationship is on its way out. Little Lies’ music reinforces the soft landing, from the well-placed chorus backing vocals from Nicks and Buckingham to the ghostly, whispered cries of “close your eyes” floating on the verses.

Last edited by bwboy; 12-03-2022 at 06:46 PM..
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Old 12-03-2022, 06:39 PM
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Rolling Stone magazine:
CHRISTINE MCVIE SERVED as the beating heart of Fleetwood Mac. The band came undone more times than most, but through it all, she was a steady, brilliant presence that kept the group rooted in their purpose.

Born Christine Perfect, the English singer-songwriter began building a long and varied career in the mid-Sixties, when she began performing around Britain’s blues scene. She would join the band Chicken Shack but inevitably leave after marrying Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie and joining his band. The rest was much more than history: What McVie created with several incarnations of the group’s line-up would go on to change rock and pop history.

Though her start was in the blues, McVie became most notable for her rich grasp of pop melodies and hooks. She would help translate the band’s Seventies rock sound into slick Eighties synths, keeping the best-sellers at the top for longer than anyone may have anticipated.

Though she retired in 1998, McVie couldn’t stay away from music long. In her final years, she toured again with the band’s classic line-up. Her last album, released in 2017, was made as a duo with Lindsey Buckingham (along with contributions from Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.)

Christine McVie specialized in spinning pop-radio gold for Fleetwood Mac in the Seventies — but first, she became part of the band because of her deep connection with the blues. On the 1968 debut LP from Chicken Shack, the band where she got her start, she wrote a lonesome lament that fits in right alongside covers of classics by Freddie King and John Lee Hooker; you might not even notice it’s an original until you see “C. Perfect” in the songwriting credits. Chicken Shack weren’t exactly Zeppelin (“We had an underground following,” she wryly observed later), but her rich, smoky vocals on “When the Train Comes Back” show a star in the making. — S.V.L.

‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ 1970
McVie released her first solo album under her already very memorable birth name, Christine Perfect. She related her 1970 solo debut in between her tenures in the bands Chicken Shack and Fleetwood Mac, continuing both bands’ taste for the blues. The album is a mix of classic covers and Perfect originals. The standout was a previous hit with Chicken Shack, her soulful and mournful cover of Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Her stellar performance on the song would hint at ballads to come from McVie, like “Oh Daddy” and “Songbird.” — B.S.

‘Show Me a Smile’ 1971
A beautiful highlight from the Danny Kirwan/Bob Welch era of Fleetwood Mac, “Show Me A Smile” is the last song on their excellent 1971 album Future Games, a slow, gently flowing ballad sung from the perspective of a new parent welcoming a child into the world, full of fragile hope and a heartbreaking sense of life’s hard road ahead. “Soon you’ll be a man/My little one/So have fun while you can/Or there’ll be none,” sings McVie, who herself never had kids. “I never found the right man. Not through want of trying,” she once said. — J.D.

‘Spare Me a Little of Your Love’ 1972
One of McVie’s gifts was her ability to write and sing about romantic yearning without ever sounding desperate or pitiful; even when she was grappling with love, she retained her dignity. That side of her was beautifully showcased in his contribution to the Bob Welch-era Mac, which has the groove and bounce of some of her later, poppier songs (along with some terrific churning organ). McVie makes her case for more time with someone in her life (“Now I know how the sun must feel/ Every time it shines”). But as always, she sounds level-headed and sensible. Her warm, stoic delivery implies that her quest may be for naught even as she revels in the giddy high of new love. — D.B.

‘Say You Love Me’ 1975
On “Say You Love Me,” Christine McVie sings “Have mercy, baby on a poor girl like me” and “say that you love me.” Her tender pleading on the song helped transform Fleetwood Mac into hitmakers. The band hadn’t made the charts for half a decade by the time they put out their self-titled 1975 LP, but thanks to “Say You Love Me” and Stevie Nicks’ “Rhiannon,” they scored a couple of hits that both made it up to Number 11. With the chorus’ lush harmonies and gentle groove of “Say You Love Me,” they settled on the sound that would define their Seventies soft-rock reign. “The first time I started playing ‘Say You Love Me,’ and I reached the chorus, [Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham] started singing with me and fell right into it,” she once said. “I heard this incredible sound — our three voices … and my skin turned to gooseflesh.” — K.G.

‘Over My Head’ 1975
When Christine’s effortless gift for melody met the gauzy, golden soft-rock production of Fleetwood Mac’s classic era, the results were pure pop heaven. She ushered in the Buckingham/Nicks years in ’75 with this luxuriously midtempo bubble bath of a song, all about — what else? — a love affair that makes you feel either really, really good or actively horrendous. “I’m over my head,” she sang, voice warm enough to banish any doubts. “But it sure feels nice.” — S.V.L.

‘You Make Loving Fun’ 1977
The romantic drama and turmoil of the Buckingham-Nicks break-up often overshadows the just as messy divorce between the McVies. Christine had her own biting words for what brought the end of her relationship with John, but she did so in her own brilliantly pop way. On “You Make Loving Fun,” McVie sang about her affair with her band’s lighting director Curry Grant. The result is a lovely and tender ode to their short-lived romance, that makes for one of the few romantic songs on the album. To keep the peace with her still-husband at the time, however, she told John it was about their dog. — B.S.

‘Don’t Stop’ 1977
As Fleetwood Mac all but fell apart during the making of Rumours, Christine McVie found a glimmer of hope in the darkness. She wrote the upbeat “Don’t Stop,” which she sang with Lindsey Buckingham, simply as a meditation on positivity: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow … it’ll soon be here,” goes the chorus. “Yesterday’s gone.” “‘Don’t Stop’ was just a feeling,” she once said. “It seemed like a pleasant revelation to have.” She wasn’t alone in that feeling: The song became a Number Three hit on the Billboard chart, and 15 years later it became Bill Clinton’s theme song for his 1992 presidential bid. “It would definitely be a great song for an insurance company,” McVie once joked. “But I’m definitely not a pessimist. I’m basically a love-song writer.” — K.G.

‘Songbird’ 1977
In this 1977 ballad, McVie’s vocals are aching with devotion, although it’s unclear if the relationship is destined to soar or if it’s unrequited. “I wish you all the love in the world,” she sings. “But most of all, I wish it for myself.” One of McVie’s four solo writing credits on Rumours, it’s also the title track of her latest release, Songbird (A Solo Collection), which came out in June. The lone Fleetwood Mac song on an album of solo work, it’s included as a new orchestral version. McVie’s yearning vocals are paired with a swelling orchestral arrangement by Vince Mendoza, but nothing beats the romance of her sparse piano score on the original. — A. Marks

‘Think About Me’ 1979
“Think About Me” is the song on the Mac’s apocalyptic 1979 double-album Tusk that keeps the sunny vibes of their biggest mid-Seventies hits going, and a bit of a decoy considering what fans were going to get from the rest of the record. It’s a McVie-Buckingham writing credit, with a hot solo and lyrics that hint at the resignation and loneliness inside the California free-love dream, making the song a perfect example of McVie’s ability to add a deeply human ambiguity to easy-listening radio rock. — J.D.

‘Over and Over’ 1979
On Tusk, Fleetwood Mac — Buckingham especially — was happy to toy with the band’s sound and pare things down when needed. McVie apparently wasn’t averse to that approach, either. Reflecting whatever relationship she was in at the time (perhaps Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, whom she was dating during this period), “Over & Over” is unusually forlorn for her: “Don’t turn me away/And don’t let me down/What can I do to keep you around?” She and the band wed that subdued message to a simple, lilting melody and backbeat that stays locked into sullen mode. It’s like the world’s most inconsolable hymn. — D.B.

‘Hold Me’ 1982
Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hit since “Don’t Stop” started off as an unfinished number that McVie had written with singer-songwriter Robbie Patton. McVie sang the song by herself on the demo, but it soon transformed into one her most iconic duets with Lindsey Buckingham (the song was a staple on the duo’s final 2017 tour together). “Some of these things just happen organically,” McVie later said of turning the song into a duet with Buckingham. “I don’t think it was a plan…It became obvious to me that Lindsey would eventually do it. — J.B.

‘Got a Hold on Me‘ 1984
A couple of years after Fleetwood Mac released their mega-selling Mirage album, Christine McVie released her second solo effort, a self-titled LP that included the hit “Got a Hold on Me.” As with many of her biggest hits, the song’s themes are love and positivity. On the song’s chorus, she and her backing band trade lines — “I got a love/I got somebody/This love/Got a hold on me” — and the whole vibe of the song, which she cowrote with sometime Hall & Oates guitarist Todd Sharp, reflects the easygoing feeling of some of her best Fleetwood Mac songs. Fittingly, Lindsey Buckingham played guitar on the track, while Steve Winwood added synths to McVie’s keyboard parts. The track made it to Number 10 on the Hot 100 and topped both the Adult Contemporary and Top Rock Tracks charts. — K.G.

‘Little Lies’ 1987
McVie’s ability to make some of the most innately likable and satisfying melodies in pop history went unmatched during Fleetwood Mac’s Eighties run. This twinkling Tango in the Night cut was co-written by McVie and her then-husband Eddy Quintela and helped further establish them as one of rock music’s most enduring and best-selling bands. “Little Lies” was Fleetwood Mac firing on all cylinders: McVie’s pillow-soft vocal performance is accented by furious harmonies and interjections from Buckingham and Nicks, a sublime showcase of the band’s three vocalists working in hard-earned unison. “Little Lies” would be the band’s most recent Top 10 hit. — B.S.

‘Everywhere’ 1987
This synth-heavy, sparkling gem off Tango proved that McVie was the pop mastermind of the Mac. It was the band’s last single to break the Top 20 in the U.S., a feat that, to McVie, seemed effortless. “I don’t struggle over my songs,” she told us in 1977. “I write them quickly and I’ve never written a lot. I write what is required of me. I don’t really write about myself, which puts me in a safe little cocoon . . . . I’m a pretty basic love song writer.” — A. Martoccio

‘Feel About You‘ 2017
After ending her semi-retirement in 2014 to rejoin Fleetwood Mac, McVie also struck up some creative inspiration by joining Buckingham in the studio to record some new material. The end result is McVie’s final album, the collaborative reunion Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie. The LP, which features Mick Fleetwood and John McVie’s iconic rhythm section, is a pure celebration of the studio magic and chemistry she and Buckingham have always had together. “Feel About You” is a bubbly insta-classic that sounds like no time passed between “Everywhere” and now. — B.S.

Last edited by bwboy; 12-03-2022 at 09:31 PM..
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Old 12-03-2022, 09:00 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
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I don’t really have a list but Hold Me, SYLM, and Calumny would be on it and YMLF, Don’t Stop and Little Lies would not be. I like those songs, but not as much as the world does.
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  #7  
Old 12-03-2022, 09:38 PM
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As Long As You Follow
Brown Eyes
Little Lies
Isn’t It Midnight
Save Me
Carnival Begin
You Make Loving Fun
Got a Hold on Me
Warm Ways
Who’s Dreaming This Dream
Did You Ever Love Me
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  #8  
Old 12-03-2022, 09:41 PM
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My top 10:
1. Little Lies
2. The Challenge
3. Heart of Stone
4. Prove Your Love
5. Everywhere
6. Love Will Show Us How
7. Why
8. Keep Me There
9. Love Shines
10. Got a Hold On Me
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Old 12-03-2022, 10:17 PM
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I simply can't make a top ten only!! Easy but not enough...

- Hollywood (Some Other Kind Of Town)
- Sooner Or Later
- Love In Store
- Brown Eyes
- Only Over You
- Wish You Were Here
- Everywhere
- Love Shines
- Come A Little Bit Closer
- Over And Over


Special mentions to: Homeward Bound, Remember Me, Heroes Are Hard To Find, Warm Ways, Over My Head, Never Forget and All Over Again!
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Old 12-04-2022, 02:21 AM
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I’m really pleased with those Rolling Stone and Guardian lists. They haven’t just listed the obvious choices just for the sake of it but taken the time to put together genuinely considered top 10 lists.
It’s therefore great to see the likes of Show Me a Smile, Why, Spare Me a Little of Your Love and Over and Over getting mentioned.

One thing I’d take issue with is Feel About You. Great to see that album getting some appreciation, but I wouldn’t have picked out that particular song. I’d have gone with Red Sun. Feel About You is a curious choice to pick out of her canon.
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  #11  
Old 12-04-2022, 03:02 AM
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Think About Me
Love Shines
Why
Hold Me
YMLF
Sugar Daddy
ALAYF
Come A Little Bit Closer
Over And Over
Brown Eyes
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  #12  
Old 12-04-2022, 05:15 AM
FuzzyPlum FuzzyPlum is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HomerMcvie View Post
Think About Me
Love Shines
Why
Hold Me
YMLF
Sugar Daddy
ALAYF
Come A Little Bit Closer
Over And Over
Brown Eyes
Swap Hold Me for Isn’t it Midnight and swap Sugar Daddy for Spare Me a Little….
….and I’d take this list.
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  #13  
Old 12-04-2022, 09:02 AM
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From Billboard

https://www.billboard.com/lists/chri...hink-about-me/
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  #14  
Old 12-04-2022, 09:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum View Post
Swap Hold Me for Isn’t it Midnight and swap Sugar Daddy for Spare Me a Little….
….and I’d take this list.
No way. Hold Me will always be in my top 5, and Sugar Daddy will always be a favorite. Sugar Daddy is FUNKY. That piano and B-3. I f*cking LOVE me some Sugar Daddy!
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Old 12-04-2022, 10:48 AM
FuzzyPlum FuzzyPlum is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HomerMcvie View Post
No way. Hold Me will always be in my top 5, and Sugar Daddy will always be a favorite. Sugar Daddy is FUNKY. That piano and B-3. I f*cking LOVE me some Sugar Daddy!
Ha....Hold Me....looks like the people at Billboard certainly like it too.
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