Fleetwood Mac were a British and American rock band formed in London in 1967. They have sold more than 120 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling musical acts. Their 1977 album, Rumours, is one of the best-selling albums of all time and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. In 1979, they were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1998 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2018, Fleetwood Mac received the MusiCares Person of the Year award from the Recording Academy in recognition of their artistic achievement in the music industry and dedication to philanthropy.
Primarily a British blues band in their early years, the line-up of singers/guitarists Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood achieved a UK No. 1 single in 1968 with the instrumental "Albatross", and had other UK Top 10 hits with "Man of the World", "Oh Well" (both 1969), and "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" (1970). Green, Spencer, and Kirwan left the band in succession during 1970–1972, with McVie's wife, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, and American singer/guitarist Bob Welch joining during this period. 1974 saw the band's relocation to the United States and Welch's departure. Fleetwood and the McVies recruited singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks at the end of that year, and the first album with this line-up, Fleetwood Mac (1975), topped the Billboard 200 chart in the US, followed by Rumours.
The line-up remained stable through three more studio albums – Tusk (1979), Mirage (1982), and Tango in the Night (1987) – before Buckingham left in 1987, and was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. The sole studio album from this line-up, Behind the Mask (1990), reached No. 1 in the UK, but was less successful in the US. The 1975–1987 line-up reunited for a one-off performance for the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993, before a full-scale reunion took place four years later, resulting in the band's fourth US No. 1 album, The Dance (1997), a live album marking the 20th anniversary of Rumours and the band's 30th anniversary. Christine McVie left in 1998 but rejoined in 2014. During her departure, Fleetwood, John McVie, Buckingham, and Nicks released the final Fleetwood Mac studio album, Say You Will, in 2003. In 2018, Buckingham was fired and replaced by Mike Campbell (formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and Neil Finn (of Split Enz and Crowded House). In 2024, two years after the death of Christine McVie, Nicks said she believed that the band would not continue.
History 1967–1970: Formation and early years Fleetwood Mac were formed in July 1967 in London, England, by Peter Green after he left the British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Green had previously replaced guitarist Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and had received critical acclaim for his work on their album A Hard Road. Green had been in two bands with Mick Fleetwood, Peter B's Looners and the subsequent Shotgun Express (which featured a young Rod Stewart as vocalist), and suggested Fleetwood as a replacement for drummer Aynsley Dunbar when Dunbar left the Bluesbreakers to join the Jeff Beck Group. John Mayall agreed and Fleetwood joined the Bluesbreakers.
The Bluesbreakers then consisted of Green, Fleetwood, bassist John McVie (a member of the Bluesbreakers since their 1963 formation) and Mayall. Mayall gave Green free recording time as a gift, which Fleetwood, McVie and Green used to record five songs. The fifth song was an instrumental that Green named after the rhythm section, "Fleetwood Mac" ("Mac" being short for McVie).
Soon after this, Green suggested to Fleetwood that they form a new band. The pair wanted McVie on bass and named the band "Fleetwood Mac" to entice him, but McVie opted to keep his steady income with Mayall rather than take a risk with a new band. In the meantime, Green and Fleetwood teamed up with slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning. Brunning was in the band on the understanding that he would leave if McVie agreed to join. The band made its debut on Sunday 13 August 1967 at the National Jazz and Blues Festival (a forerunner of the Reading Festival), billed as "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer". Brunning played only a few gigs with Fleetwood Mac, as within a few weeks of their first show, John McVie agreed to join the band as permanent bassist, after growing disenchanted with Mayall's move to a more jazz-influenced style. With management wanting to capitalise on Green's popularity with the Bluesbreakers, the band would continue to use the name Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac until early 1968 when, at Green's own insistence, the name was officially shortened to Fleetwood Mac.
Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut album was released by the Blue Horizon label in February 1968. The song "Long Grey Mare" was recorded earlier with Brunning on bass, while the rest of the album was recorded with McVie. The album was successful in the UK and reached no. 4, although no tracks were released as singles. Later in the year, the singles "Black Magic Woman" (later a big hit when covered by Santana) and "Need Your Love So Bad" were released, both going top-forty in the UK.
The band's second studio album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and a PA system, rather than being plugged into the board. The sessions featured a horn section as well as friend of the band, Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack, on keyboards. Later that year, Chicken Shack scored a British hit with a cover of the Etta James classic "I'd Rather Go Blind", with Perfect on lead vocal. Perfect was voted female artist of the year by Melody Maker in 1969 and 1970.
Shortly after the release of Mr. Wonderful, 18-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan joined the band, making Fleetwood Mac a five-piece with three guitarists. Kirwan had previously been in the South London blues trio Boilerhouse with Trevor Stevens (bass) and Dave Terrey (drums). Green and Fleetwood had watched Boilerhouse rehearse in a basement boiler-room, and Green had been so impressed that he invited the band to play support slots for Fleetwood Mac. Green wanted Boilerhouse to become a professional band, but Stevens and Terrey were not prepared to turn professional, so Green tried to find another rhythm section for Kirwan by placing an ad in Melody Maker. There were over 300 applicants, but when Green and Fleetwood ran auditions at the Nag's Head in Battersea (home of the Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon Club) Green could not find anyone good enough. Instead, Fleetwood invited Kirwan to join Fleetwood Mac as a third guitarist.
In November 1968, with Kirwan in the band, they released their first number-one single in Europe, "Albatross", an instrumental with lead guitar by both Green and Kirwan. Green said later that the success of "Albatross" was thanks to Kirwan: "If it wasn't for Danny, I would never have had a number one hit record." In January 1969, the compilation album English Rose was released in the US, while a similar compilation album, The Pious Bird of Good Omen, was released in the UK in August.
On tour in the United States in January 1969, the band recorded Fleetwood Mac in Chicago (released in December as a double album) at the soon-to-close Chess Records Studio with some of the blues legends of Chicago, including Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Otis Spann. These were Fleetwood Mac's last all-blues recordings, with the band moving more towards rock. Along with the change of style, the band was also going through label changes. In early 1969, the band left Blue Horizon and signed with Immediate Records, releasing the single "Man of the World", which became another British and European hit. For the B-side, Spencer fronted Fleetwood Mac as "Earl Vince and the Valiants" and recorded "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite", typifying the more raucous rock 'n' roll side of the band. Immediate Records was in bad shape however, so the band shopped around for a new deal. The Beatles wanted the band on Apple Records, but the band's manager Clifford Davis decided to go with Warner Bros. Records (through Reprise Records, a Frank Sinatra-founded label), the label they have stayed with ever since.
Under the wing of Reprise, Fleetwood Mac released their third studio album, Then Play On, in September 1969. Although the initial pressing of the American release of this album was the same as the British version, it was altered in early 1970 to include the single "Oh Well", which had been another UK hit for the band in late 1969 as well as their first entry into the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. "Oh Well" has since been a Fleetwood Mac staple, featuring consistently in live performances from the time of its release through 1997 and again starting in 2009. The songwriting for Then Play On, which saw the band broaden their style away from straight blues, was handled mostly by Green and Kirwan. Spencer did not contribute any songs, but released a solo album in early 1970, which featured backing from Fleetwood, McVie and Kirwan.
By 1969, Green was using LSD. During a European tour towards the end of that year, he experienced a bad acid trip at a hippie commune in Munich. Clifford Davis, the band's manager, singled out this incident as the crucial point in Green's mental decline. He said: "The truth about Peter Green and how he ended up how he did is very simple. We were touring Europe in late 1969. When we were in Germany, Peter told me he had been invited to a party. I knew there were going to be a lot of drugs around and I suggested that he didn't go. But he went anyway and I understand from him that he took what turned out to be very bad, impure LSD. He was never the same again."Brunning, B. (1998). Fleetwood Mac – The First 30 Years. London: Omnibus Press. p. 28. German author and filmmaker Rainer Langhans stated in his autobiography that he and his then-girlfriend, model Uschi Obermaier, met Green in Munich and invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune, where the drinks were spiked with acid. Langhans and Obermaier were planning to organise an open-air "Bavarian Woodstock", for which they wanted Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones to be the main acts. Already in contact with Hendrix, they hoped Green would help them to get in contact with the Rolling Stones.
Green's last studio recording with Fleetwood Mac was "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" and its B-side, "World in Harmony". The tracks were recorded at Warner-Reprise's studios in Hollywood on the band's third US tour in April 1970, a few weeks before Green left the band. Released as a single the following month, it made No. 10 in the UK. Prior to its studio recording, the band had played the song live at the Boston Tea Party in February 1970. Some recordings of the three Boston Tea Party gigs (5–7 February 1970) were eventually released in 1985 as the Live in Boston album. An expanded, three-volume edition of Live in Boston was released in 1998. "Green Manalishi" was released as Green's mental stability deteriorated. He wanted the band to give all their money to charity, but the other members of the band disagreed. In April 1970, Green decided to quit the band after the completion of their European tour. His last show with Fleetwood Mac was on 20 May 1970.
1970–1973: Transitional era