Five people, three breakups and one of the bestselling albums ever made

01The context

In 1976 John and Christine McVie were divorcing. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were breaking up. Mick Fleetwood’s marriage was ending. The band had just had its first big success in America and could not afford to stop.

02How the album was recorded

Much of the album was recorded at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, with more work in Los Angeles. The sessions were long, chaotic and full of excess, and the engineers had to repair tapes that had worn out from being played so often.

Buckingham was the band’s main arranger. He built the songs with careful layers of guitars and vocals, even when the songs were about him.

03The unusual story

Stevie Nicks’ song “Silver Springs”, about her breakup with Buckingham, was left off the album because of its length and came out as a B-side. Twenty years later the band’s live version on The Dance became one of their best-known performances.

04Artwork and visual identity

The cover shows Nicks in a flowing costume next to Mick Fleetwood, who has a pair of wooden balls hanging from his belt. He started wearing them on stage after taking them from a pub toilet chain.