- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- The double-album Tusk is Fleetwood Mac’s follow-up to Rumours and is a more experimental record providing a sharp contrast to Rumours.
Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (1979): Fleetwood Mac was one of the original British Invasion bands and was named after the rhythm section who are the only constant bandmembers over their long and varied career, Mick Fleetwood (drums) and John McVie (bass). The enduring popularity of Fleetwood Mac was recently illustrated in a viral video in September 2020, when an Idaho TikTok star named Nathan Apodaca posted a video of himself skateboarding while grooving to a Fleetwood Mac song called “Dreams” (1977). The video was later copied and adapted by many others, including Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood Mac was originally founded in 1967 as a blues-rock band like so many of the British bands of that period. They enjoyed great popularity in Britain, including a U.K. #1 hit “Albatross”, though they did not make much of an impression on the American charts early on.
John McVie’s wife Christine Perfect McVie joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970 as both a vocalist and keyboard player, and she is one of the first high-profile women to be added to an established rock band. After considerable turnover in personnel, Mick Fleetwood met the then-married Los Angeles folk-rock duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and shortly asked them to join Fleetwood Mac. The band’s sound became more polished at that point, and their popularity in the U.S. grew exponentially. The second Fleetwood Mac album after the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (and their 11th album overall), Rumours (1977) was recorded during considerable personal turmoil and the disintegration of three romantic relationships among the bandmembers, with its title reflecting news of their problems becoming known while the album was being made. Rumours was #1 on the Billboard albums chart for 31 weeks and has sold 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the largest selling albums of all time. At that point, Fleetwood Mac acquired the nickname “Big Mac”. One of the songs on Rumours, “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)” was the theme song of Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaigns and was played at the convention hall following his nomination for President in 1992 and again in 1996. The double-album Tusk is Fleetwood Mac’s follow-up to Rumours amid continued tensions among the bandmembers and is a more experimental record that deliberately provided a sharp contrast to Rumours. Whereas Rumours spawned four Top 10 singles, only two of the six singles released from Tusk made the Top 10, the title song “Tusk” and “Sara”; and two of the singles did not chart at all. “Tusk” is one of the more unusual songs on the album and was recorded outdoors with the University of Southern California’s Trojan Marching Band. A mobile studio was set up in Dodger Stadium for the recording. “Tusk” set the record for the most musicians ever playing on a charting single, since the marching band had 112 members at the time.