Christine McVie Is No Stevie Nicks

But Fleetwood Mac’s unsung heroine just might be their real MVP.

Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks with John McVie and Mick Fleetwood onstage in Tulsa in 2018 (Photo: flickr)

In a Billboard chart twist no-one saw coming (at least I didn’t), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is top ten again, more than 40 years after becoming one of the best-selling albums in history. Although a viral Tik Tok video featuring the band’s “Dreams” led to the resurgence of the 1977 album and sent its number-one single inching toward the top 10 once again, Fleetwood Mac’s popularity has never waned.

Myriad line-up changes haven’t dimmed FM’s star power (Lindsey Buckingham was fired in 2018 and replaced by Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) nor the perception that they owe it mostly to Stevie Nicks, who sang lead on the band’s only US chart-topping single. While Nicks and Buckingham might appear to be the core of Fleetwood Mac’s long-running success, we shouldn’t underestimate the creative and commercial might of Christine McVie.

Few bands in the history of rock & roll have exemplified the division-of-labor work ethic as…