Fleetwood Mac’s biggest successes centered on the creative nexus of Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. Every one of the band’s U.S. Top 10 hits was covered in their fingerprints.
In keeping, Fleetwood Mac’s solo discography is dominated by the same trio. Together, they boast 10 Top 40 solo albums: Nicks has issued seven – including three Top 10 albums, capped by her 1981 chart-topping solo debut. Buckingham added two and McVie released one Top 40 LP. (Buckingham and McVie also scored their own No. 17 U.S. hit with a 2017 project that started out as Fleetwood Mac’s 18th studio album.)
The grand total of Top 40 albums released by all of the group’s other main songwriting contributors? One: Bob Welch. Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were simply too sporadic, while Jeremy Spencer initially strayed from his sturdy blues roots.
Still, Fleetwood Mac’s story would be incomplete without their stirring contributions.
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Peter Green’s “Albatross” went to No. 1 in the U.K. in 1968, then 1969’s “Oh Well” reached No. 2. (A complete reworking of his “Black Magic Woman” also became a signature song for Santana.) Welch originally wrote “Sentimental Lady” for a 1972 Fleetwood Mac studio project before resurrecting the song as a solo hit some five years later. The Fleetwood Mac deep cut “Hypnotized,” written by Welch, became an rock radio staple in the early ’70s.
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Fleetwood and John McVie earned co-writing credits on “The Chain,” after Fleetwood brought Buckingham and Nicks into the lineup. Their presence amid the sunlit romanticism that Christine McVie always seemed to emit tended to obscure everyone else. Their solo careers were no different.
There have been more than 45 Fleetwood Mac solo albums. (UCR)
As you’ll see in the following ranking of the best (and worst) solo albums from each member of Fleetwood Mac, too-often-overlooked figures like Green, Fleetwood, Kirwan, John McVie, Spencer, Welch and Weston once again made their own important contributions. There were plenty of stumbles along the way, too.
Some bandmates from the group’s long history between 1967 and 2022 were not considered – including Bob Brunning (1967), Dave Walker (1972-1973), Billy Burnette (1987-1995), Rick Vito (1987-1990), Dave Mason (1993-1995), Bekka Bramlett (1993-1995), Mike Campbell (2018-2022) and Neil Finn (2018–2022). They were only touring members, they lacked other mainstream success or they were absent from any key Fleetwood Mac albums.
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