McVie forged a legendary history on the Billboard Hot 100 with Fleetwood Mac

Christine McVie’s Top 10 Biggest Hot 100 Hits

McVie forged a legendary history on the Billboard Hot 100 with Fleetwood Mac & as a soloist.

By Keith Caulfield

Billboard

Photo Randee St. Nicholas

Late singer-songwriter Christine McVie, who died Nov. 30 at age 79, left a great impression on Billboard’s charts through the decades, thanks to her pure pop/rock sensibility that often lifted Fleetwood Mac, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band in which she was a longtime member, to incredible heights.

For most of Fleetwood Mac’s hitmaking career, McVie was one of its three primary singers and songwriters, alongside Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Notably, McVie wrote and sang lead vocals on three of the band’s top four biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – including the group’s biggest song, “Hold Me.”

Billboard has exclusively compiled McVie’s top 10 biggest hits on the Hot 100 chart, based on actual performance on the weekly survey. Included were any charted songs by Fleetwood Mac that McVie wrote and on which she sang lead vocals, as well as her solo recordings outside the band.

McVie’s biggest Hot 100 hit is the 1982 Fleetwood Mac song “Hold Me,” which was released as the first single from the band’s Mirage album. It spent a staggering seven weeks at its peak of No. 4 on the weekly Hot 100 chart – a then-record for that peak rank. McVie sang lead vocals on “Hold Me,” and it was written by McVie and Robbie Patton. (Overall, “Hold Me” is Fleetwood Mac’s biggest Hot 100 hit, while the group’s No. 2 hit is its lone chart-topper on the weekly Hot 100 – 1977’s “Dreams,” penned by Nicks, who also sang its lead vocal.)

McVie’s second-biggest all-time Hot 100 hit is “Little Lies,” which was released in 1987 as the third single from Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night album. McVie had lead vocal duties on the cut, and she co-wrote it with her then-husband Eddy Quintela.

Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” – which was solely written by McVie, who shared lead vocals with Buckingham – is her third-biggest Hot 100 hit. The track became one of four top 10-charting singles from the mega-successful Rumours album. The set spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – still a record for any album by a group.

Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Love Me” and “You Make Loving Fun” (both singularly written by McVie, who sang lead) round out McVie’s top five biggest Hot 100 hits. The former was released in 1976 as the final single from the band’s self-titled album. That album was the first to feature the lineup of Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Nicks, Christine McVie and her first husband John McVie.

The Buckingham/Fleetwood/Nicks/McVie/McVie lineup would release five studio albums (from 1975’s self-titled set through 1987’s Tango In the Night) and two live albums (1980’s Live and 1997’s The Dance). All four of the act’s No. 1 albums were by that famed lineup, with the self-titled set, Rumours, Mirage and The Dance all topping the Billboard 200.

Christine McVie’s 10 Biggest Billboard Hits recap is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.

10. Fleetwood Mac’s “Think About Me,” from Tusk, peaked at No. 20 in 1980.

09. Fleetwood Mac’s “Love In Store,” from Mirage, peaked at No. 22 in 1983.

08. Fleetwood Mac’s “Over My Head,” from the band’s self-titled 1975 album, peaked at No. 20 in 1976.

07. Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere,” from Tango in the Night, peaked at No. 14 in 1988.

06. Christine McVie’s “Got a Hold On Me,” from her self-titled second solo album, peaked at No. 10 in 1984.

05. Fleetwood Mac’s “You Make Loving Fun,” from Rumours, peaked at No. 9 in 1977.

04. Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Love Me,” from Fleetwood Mac, peaked at No. 11 in 1976.

03. Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” from Rumours, peaked at No. 3 in 1977.

02. Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies,” from Tango in the Night, peaked at No. 4 in 1987.

01. Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me,” from Mirage, spent seven weeks at No. 4 in 1982.

Christine McVie staked her claim as one of the most potent singer-songwriters of her generation

Remembering Christine McVie Of Fleetwood Mac Through Her GRAMMY Triumphs, From 'Rumours' Onward

Unflashy and undramatic, McVie's contributions to Fleetwood Mac led to some of their greatest contributions to popular song — with two GRAMMY wins to boot.

ROB LEDONNE

GRAMMYS - DEC 2, 2022

In an acclaimed career that spanned more than half a century, Christine McVie staked her claim as one of the most potent singer-songwriters of her generation. A beloved original member of the seminal rock group Fleetwood Mac, with whom she sang, wrote and played keyboard, she and her bandmates catapulted to fame in the early '70s, scoring GRAMMY gold and influencing generations of musicians.

"As a GRAMMY Award winner and 2018 Person of the Year honoree, the Recording Academy has been honored to celebrate Christine McVie and her work with Fleetwood Mac throughout her legendary career," Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. stated. In an announcement of her death, the remaining members of Fleetwood Mac mourned her passing by saying "She was truly one-of-a-kind, special, and talented beyond measure."

McVie, who passed away Nov. 30 at 79 after a brief illness, may have not been as flashy, or as dramatic, as fellow Fleetwood Mac members Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. But McVie's contributions to the band led to some of their greatest contributions to popular song, with two GRAMMY wins among seven nominations.

The tour de force that is Rumours is one of the most acclaimed and best-selling albums of all time and an inductee into GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. The masterpiece earned McVie her first GRAMMY (for Album of the Year no less) at the 20th Annual Ceremony in 1978, also earning a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Group.

Fleetwood Mac's 11th studio album, Rumours was actually McVie's 7th album with the band after making her name in the English blues scene, rising through the ranks as part of the band Chicken Shack, and even releasing a solo album.

In 1971, McVie joined Fleetwood Mac alongside her then-husband John McVie. The potent combination of the McVies, along with Mick Fleetwood, Buckingham and Nicks, catalyzed and detonated into the stratospheric Rumours.

"It's hard to say (what it was like) because we were looking at it from the inside," McVie said about the iconic album earlier this year.  "We were having a blast and it felt incredible to us that we were writing those songs. That's all I can say about it, really."

McVie's coyness may stem from the fact that prior to its production, Christine and John divorced after eight years of marriage. Meanwhile, Buckingham and Nicks were having a tumultuous relationship themselves. 

McVie is credited as sole songwriter on a handful of instant-classic Rumours tracks, all written during a perilous moment. "I thought I was drying up," explained McVie. "I was practically panicking because every time I sat down at a piano, nothing came out. Then, one day,  I just sat down and wrote in the studio, and the four-and-a-half songs of mine on the album are a result of that."

That includes "Don't Stop," an ironically peppy ode considering the turmoil McVie and her bandmates were grappling with at the time. With lyrics that staunchly proclaim "Yesterday's gone!," the song was reportedly written as a plea from Christine to John to move on from their relationship.

"I dare say, if I hadn't joined Fleetwood Mac, we might still be together. I just think it's impossible to work in the band with your spouse," McVie later said. John, meanwhile, was oblivious to the song's message during its production and early acclaim. He revealed in 2015: "I've been playing it for years and it wasn't until somebody told me, 'Chris wrote that about you.' Oh really?"

John was also equally ignorant to the source inspiration of "You Make Loving Fun"; McVie told him the joyful song ("Sweet wonderful you/ You make me happy with the things you do") was about her dog. In reality, it was about an affair with the band's lighting designer.

"It was a therapeutic move," McVie later mused of her lyrical penchant for hiding brutal honesty in plain sight. "The only way we could get this stuff out was to say it, and it came out in a way that was difficult. Imagine trying to sing those songs onstage with the people you're singing them about."

When McVie was asked earlier this year what song she written she was most proud of, it was an easy answer: the Rumours track "Songbird."

"For some peculiar reason, I wrote "Songbird" in half an hour; I've never been able to figure out how I did that," she told People. "I woke up in the middle of the night and the song was there in my brain, chords, lyrics, melody, everything. I played it in my bedroom and didn't have anything to tape it on. So I had to stay awake all night so I wouldn't forget it and I came in the next morning to the studio and had (producer) Ken Callait put it on a 2-track. That was how the song ended up being. I don't know where that came from."

McVie's most recent GRAMMY nominations were for her contributions to The Dance, Fleetwood Mac's 1997 live album that featured her stand-outs from Rumours along with the McVie penned-tracks "Say You Love Me" and "Everywhere."

The album earned McVie and the band GRAMMY nominations for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal (for the Lindsay Buckingham-written "The Chain") and  Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal (for "Silver Springs," penned by Stevie Nicks). It also landed a nomination for Best Pop Album. It was her final album with the band before a 15-year self-imposed retirement.

In her final years, McVie was a vital member of Fleetwood Mac, including in 2018 when they became the first band honored as MusicCare's Person of the Year.

Speaking to the Recording Academy before the ceremony, Nicks expressed that her initial goal upon joining the group was a humble one: "Christine and I made a pact. We said we will never, ever be treated as a second-class citizen amongst our peers."

Album Sales Jump In Response To Christine McVie's Death

UK Album Sales

 

The death, at the age of 79, of Fleetwood Mac legend Christine McVie was announced on Wednesday (30 November). In apparent response, the band’s most celebrated album, Rumours, bounces 42-24, achieving a 31-week high on consumption of 3,585 units, while the most recent compilation of the band’s work, 50 Years: Don’t Stop holds at No.23 (3,667 sales). In reality, Rumours was already at No.28 on Wednesday’s sales flashes before McVie’s death, while 50 Years was at No.24. They therefore secured only minor improvements after her demise – partly because, as is most frequently the case, streaming data was not available from most major players for Thursday, with the week’s data to that point being upweighted to compensate. However, sales of CD & vinyl editions of Rumours were up 56.36% week-on-week from 848 to 1,326, while digital downloads were up 2045.45% from just 22 to 472.

iTunes Charts November 30th, December 1, 2, 3

Wed November 30, 2022, 23:30

ALBUMS CHART

18 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

27 Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

28 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Deluxe Edition)

38 Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac (Remastered)

SONG CHART

Thu December 1, 2022, 10:47

20 Fleetwood Mac - Songbird

33 Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere

34 Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

35 Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies

73 Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

86 Eva Cassidy - Songbird

ALBUMS CHART

6 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

11 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Deluxe Edition)

15 Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

17 Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac (Remastered)

22 Christine McVie - Songbird (A Solo Collection)

29 Fleetwood Mac - Tango In The Night (Remastered)

51 Christine McVie - Christine McVie

59 Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie - Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie

60 Fleetwood Mac - 50 Years - Don't Stop

SONG CHART

Fri December 2, 2022, 02:22

3 Fleetwood Mac - Songbird

16 Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere

19 Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies

21 Chicken Shack - I'd Rather Go Blind

27 Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

30 Fleetwood Mac - Dreams

31 Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

32 Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop

47 Eva Cassidy - Songbird

49 Christine McVie - Songbird (Orchestral Version)

51 Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun

55 Fleetwood Mac - Songbird (2002 Remastered)

71 Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

74 Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies (2002 Remastered)

75 Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon

80 Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere (2002 Remastered)

83 Fleetwood Mac - Dreams

89 Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way (2002 Remastered)

99 Fleetwood Mac - Say You Love Me

ALBUMS CHART

3 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

8 Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

9 Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac (Remastered)

12 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Deluxe Edition)

13 Fleetwood Mac - Tango In The Night (Remastered)

14 Christine McVie - Songbird (A Solo Collection)

21 Fleetwood Mac - 50 Years: Don't Stop

29 Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie - Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie

30 Fleetwood Mac - The Dance (Live)

40 Chicken Shack - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions

44 Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

46 Christine McVie - Christine McVie

57 Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (Remastered)

91 Fleetwood Mac - Tango In The Night (Deluxe)

The Warner family has lost a dear friend of many decades with the passing of Christine McVie

CHRISTINE MCVIE,

1943-2022

Hits Daily Double

Keyboardist, singer and songwriter Christine McVie, a key member of Fleetwood Mac during its commercial peak in the 1970s and '80s, died on 11/30 after a short illness. She was 79.

The surviving members of Fleetwood Mac issued a statement that reads: “There are no words to describe our sadness at the passing of Christine McVie. She was truly one of a kind, special and talented beyond measure. She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her. Individually and together, we cherished Christine deeply and are thankful for the amazing memories we have. She will be so very missed.”

McVie, who used her maiden name, Christine Perfect, as a solo artist and member of Chicken Shack in the 1960s, married Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie and joined his band as a permanent member in 1971. (She was a guest on two of their '60s albums.) As the group evolved from its blues-rock roots with a revolving cast of guitarists and singers, McVie blossomed as a songwriter and lead singer on such albums as Mystery to Me and Heroes Are Hard to Find; a contribution to 1972's Bare Trees, "Spare Me a Little of Your Love," demonstrated the unique soulfulness that would become her vocal trademark.    

Even after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band and gave it a new look and pop spin, McVie was on equal footing as a writer and singer: She had two Top 20 hits, “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me,” on Fleetwood Mac's self-titled 1975 breakthrough album and for its follow-up, 1977’s era-defining Rumours, wrote and sang “Don’t Stop,” “You Make Lovin’ Fun,” “Oh Daddy” and “Songbird.”

Following the Buckingham/Nicks-dominated Tusk, which featured McVie’s “Think About Me,” she provided the band’s late-era hits “Hold Me,” “Little Lies” and “Save Me.” Her voice has lately been used to sell Chevrolets, with “Everywhere,” from 1987’s Tango in the Night, revived thanks to the oft-played commercial.

McVie chose to stop playing live with the band following a 1990 tour and sat out a 1994 reunion with Buckingham, Nicks, John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, performing with the group a handful of times through 1998. The standout gig during that period was the televised 1997 special that became the multimillion-seller The Dance.

McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac for a 2014 tour and a 2018 run with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell replacing Buckingham.

As a solo artist, McVie released three albums—1970’s Christine Perfect, 1984’s Christine McVie, which cracked the Top 30, and 2004’s In the Meantime—and, most recently, an eponymous 2017 album with Buckingham.

McVie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 as a member of Fleetwood Mac. 

"The loss of Christine McVie is not only devastating to all of us in her Warner Music family across the globe but to the entire music community and her countless millions of fans," reads a quote from WMG Recorded Music chief Max Lousada. "From her early days with Chicken Shack to her phenomenal time with Fleetwood Mac to her brilliant solo work, Christine has been in our collective musical consciousness for nearly six decades. Her voice was unmistakable and indelible, her songwriting beautiful and peerless and her live performances powerful and entrancing. She was, and is, a musical icon for the ages, and she will be deeply missed. Our condolences go out to her family, friends and bandmates."

"The Warner family has lost a dear friend of many decades with the passing of Christine McVie," added President of Global Catalog, Recorded Music Kevin Gore. "She was an exceptionally gifted musician, with her signature vocals and impeccable songwriting front and center on many of Fleetwood Mac’s most beloved hits. I had the honor of spending time with Christine a few years ago to discuss how to best present her solo work, and I’m so pleased with the collection she produced, which recently earned a Grammy nomination. Our deepest condolences go out to Christine’s family, bandmates and friends, along with her legions of fans around the world. Warner Music will continue to honor and preserve Christine’s unparalleled legacy and, though she may no longer be with us, we will all, like the songbird, keep singing her songs."

"We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Christine McVie," reads a statement from the Eagles. "Hers was a vibrant, soulful spirit, and her music was, and will remain, a gift to the world. We had the utmost admiration and respect for Christine. We send our heartfelt condolences to her family, her bandmates and her legions of fans." 

Stevie Nicks once said from the stage that McVie was her “mentor, big sister, best friend”

‘I would probably be delighted’ – how Christine McVie opened up about wanting to rejoin Fleetwood Mac

For a fan, interviewing the late musician was like a surreal dream. Better still was the privilege of hearing about her lifelong friendship with Stevie Nicks

By Tim Jonze

The Guardian

Dec 2, 2022

For a fan, interviewing the late musician was like a surreal dream. Better still was the privilege of hearing about her lifelong friendship with Stevie Nicks

It was strange enough being in Christine McVie’s flat – high up and hovering over a stretch of the River Thames in Battersea with an upright piano in the corner of the room (oh, to be her neighbour). But it was stranger still hearing what she had to say. As we sat together on her light grey sofa in December 2013, McVie told me how she had left Fleetwood Mac in 1998 thinking that she wanted a quiet life in the Kent countryside with her dogs and Hunter wellies. But that hadn’t been what she had wanted at all. Fifteen years on, McVie was restless, isolated, a little lonely … and wouldn’t it be nice if she could be back playing with the band? “If they were to ask me, I would probably be very delighted,” she ventured nervously.

What was I supposed to say to this? It seemed obvious to me that they would take her back in a flash. Earlier that year, Stevie Nicks had said she’d “beg, borrow and scrape together $5m and give it to her in cash if she would come back. That’s how much I miss her!” And just two months before, McVie had even appeared on stage with Fleetwood Mac to thrill the crowd with a surprise encore of her hit Don’t Stop.

Of course, it’s eminently possible that this was all stage-managed by the band: ask McVie to sound reticent in front of a journalist in order to build the hype around her grand return. But this was also a genuinely dysfunctional band that revolved around the careful massaging of male egos. Communicating their deepest desires to each other via the press was equally likely. I think McVie was being genuine in her cautious approach, not just because I like to pretend I played a key role in getting the classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac back together, but because everything about her seemed genuine.

When I told McVie how excited I was to meet her – a rare bit of fanboying that I would normally steer well clear of – she looked uncertain how to respond, a tad embarrassed. While Nicks, who I had met a few weeks earlier in Paris, had spoken fantastically about fate and celestial beings and communicating with her late mother through her jewellery, McVie told me tales about mastering blues bass lines with her left hand and how she supposed she must be “good with hooks”. (“Oh, do you think so?” I had to hold myself back from replying to the woman who had written Say You Love Me, Over My Head, You Make Loving Fun, Songbird, Don’t Stop, Over and Over, Hold Me, Little Lies and Everywhere.)

The difference between the two female members of the band played out in the music, too, where McVie, with her optimistic songs about falling head over heels in love and moving on from broken hearts, complemented Nicks’s more mystical and poetic output. In a way, McVie was the McCartney to Nicks’s Lennon; each was stronger for having the other by her side.

The same was true, I discovered, about them as people. It was a privilege to hear the story of their friendship, something that can get lost beneath the wreckage of the affairs and cocaine-fuelled rows that serve the Fleetwood Mac myth. Because what really kept the band afloat during their most tumultuous period was the bond that these two sisters of the moon shared from the moment they first met up – for Mexican food in 1974.

Back then, McVie was given the final say on whether Nicks could join the band. She admitted that she might have felt threatened by another woman, five years younger and from glamorous Los Angeles, competing with her for songwriting space. But she liked Nicks instantly – and from there the band’s music blossomed. There were still plenty of tantrums, of course, and lots of bitchy infighting – only it was the men providing all that. Whenever tensions simmered too high between the guys, Nicks and McVie would seek solace in each other: sharing Dunkin’ Donuts, doing each other’s makeup, rolling their eyes at the bad behaviour of their male counterparts.

There were double standards galore. After the splits – between Christine and John McVie, and Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham – the two women were discouraged from bringing their subsequent partners on tour. What would be the point when their exes would just glare at them and start fights? But the men would happily bring their new girlfriends along. “Oh, it was all right for them,” said McVie. “But whatever keeps the lads happy, I suppose.”

They might have been pragmatic but they were no pushovers. “We made a pact, probably in our first rehearsal, that we would never accept being treated as second-class citizens in the music business,” Nicks told me. “That when we walked into a room we would be so fantastic and so strong and so smart that none of the uber-rockstar group of men would look through us. And they never did.”

Nicks once said from the stage that McVie was her “mentor … big sister … best friend”. I was probably only in her London flat for an hour or so, but I left feeling that if I were ever in a globe-straddling rock band, dealing with the many madnesses of the music industry, there would be few better people to have on your side than Christine McVie.

Fleetwood Mac Band Members Statements on the Passing of Christine McVie

Stevie Nicks Memorializes Christine McVie, Her ‘Best Friend in the Whole World’
by Devon Ivie
Vulture

Christine McVie, the prolific soul of Fleetwood Mac, died November 30 at the age of 79 following a short illness. Stevie Nicks, her songbird in music and life for nearly five decades, released a statement to honor their relationship, which began when Nicks joined the band for their Fleetwood Mac album. “A few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975 had passed away. I didn’t even know she was ill until late Saturday night,” Nicks wrote on social media. “I wanted to be in London. I wanted to get to London. But we were told to wait. So, since Saturday, one song has been swirling around in my head, over and over and over. I thought I might possibly get to sing it to her, and so, I’m singing it to her now. I always knew I would need these words one day.” Nicks included a page of handwritten lyrics to Haim’s “Hallelujah” as the mentioned song, which recounts the death and legacy of a friend. “See you on the other side, my love,” she added. “Don’t forget me.”

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Mick Fleetwood, the band’s drummer, wrote on social media that “memories abound” when thinking of McVie. She joined Fleetwood Mac as a full member in 1971, with Future Games serving as her official debut as a singer and songwriter, although she worked as a session musician for the band starting with 1968’s Mr. Wonderful. “This is a day where my dear sweet friend Christine McVie has taken to flight and left us earthbound folks to listen with bated breath to the sounds of that ‘song bird,’ reminding one and all that love is all around us to reach for and touch in this precious life that is gifted to us,” he said. “Part of my heart has flown away today.”

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Guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham posted a handwritten note on Instagram calling McVie’s death “profoundly heartbreaking.” “Not only were she and I part of the magical family of Fleetwood Mac, to me Christine was a musical comrade, a friend, a soul mate, a sister,” he wrote. “For over four decades, we helped each other create a beautiful body of work and a lasting legacy that continues to resonate today. I feel very lucky to have known her.” The final classic lineup member of Fleetwood Mac, McVie’s ex-husband and bassist John McVie, has yet to speak publicly about her death.

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 Statement from Fleetwood Mac

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