Fleetwood Mac's Rumours Is Once Again a Top 10 Album in the US

Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' Returns to Billboard 200 Top 10 -- 42 Years Later

by Keith Caulfield
Billboard

After a 42-year wait, Fleetwood Mac’s former Billboard 200 No. 1 album Rumours returns to the top 10 this week, as the set jumps 13-7. The album, released in 1977, is basking in the glow of sales and streaming increases spurred on by publicity generated from a viral TikTok video set to the album’s song “Dreams.”

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 24-dated chart (where Rumours returns to the top 10) will be posted in full on Billboard's website on Oct. 20. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. 

Rumours earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 15 – up 15%, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of that sum, 23,000 comprise SEA units (up 15%, equating to 30.6 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs, including "Dreams"), a little under 7,000 are in album sales (up 15%) and 4,000 are in TEA units (up 13%).

The TikTok video in question has “Dreams” soundtracking a man in a hoodie (Nathan Apodaca) seemingly being pulled on a skateboard, as he drinks from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and sings along with Stevie Nicks’ lead vocal. The video became so popular, it moved the band’s own Mick Fleetwood and Nicks to create their own tribute clips.

Rumours spent 31 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1977-78 – a record number of weeks atop the list for an album by a duo or group. Rumours was last in the top 10 on the Feb. 18, 1978-dated chart (at No. 10), and last ranked at No. 7 or higher on the Feb. 11, 1978 chart (where it placed at No. 7).

“Dreams” is Fleetwood Mac’s only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart – out of 25 chart hits. “Dreams” spent one week at No. 1 on June 18, 1977. The cut is one of four top 10 hits from the Rumours album. The effort also launched the singles “Go Your Own Way” (No. 10), “Don’t Stop” (No. 3) and “You Make Loving Fun” (No. 9).