{"id":583231,"date":"2026-04-05T06:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583231\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:03:08","slug":"49-years-ago-fleetwood-mac-scored-their-first-no-1-album-with-this-drug-and-drama-fueled-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583231\/","title":{"rendered":"49 Years Ago, Fleetwood Mac Scored Their First No. 1 Album With This Drug and Drama Fueled Masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been said that artists must suffer for their art. No one exemplified that adage more than Fleetwood Mac on their 1977 album Rumors, which topped the U.S. albums chart on the first week of April, 1977. All four of the album\u2019s singles\u2014\u201dGo Your Own Way\u201d, \u201cDreams\u201d, \u201cDon\u2019t Stop\u201d, and \u201cYou Make Loving Fun\u201d\u2014cracked the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with \u201cDreams\u201d <\/a>ascending all the way to No. 1.<\/p>\n

The internal discord between drummer\u00a0Mick Fleetwood, singer-keyboardist Christine McVie, bassist\u00a0John McVie, singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham,\u00a0and singer\u00a0Stevie Nicks didn\u2019t peek through Rumors\u2019 flawless harmonies and impeccable storytelling. Inside the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, Fleetwood Mac had never sounded more in sync.<\/p>\n

Outside the studio was a different matter. Husband-wife duo John and Christine McVie ended their eight-year marriage. Tensions mounted so high that the former couple stopped speaking about anything other than music. The quintet\u2019s other romantic pairing, Buckingham and Nicks, continued their famously tumultuous relationship, fighting more often than not. Even Mick Fleetwood wasn\u2019t immune, as the drummer learned his wife was having an affair with his best friend.<\/p>\n

The ready accessibility of c*caine in the Bay Area, coupled with the band\u2019s open-ended budget, certainly didn\u2019t help on that front. Record Plant owner Chris Stone later recalled parties that began at 7 a.m. and lasted until 1 or 2 a.m. the following day. \u201d\u00a0Then when they were so whacked-out they couldn\u2019t do anything, they\u2019d start recording,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The 3 Undisputed Best Songs From Fleetwood Mac\u2019s 1977 Album \u2018Rumours\u2019]<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite \u201cFalling Apart\u201d, Fleetwood Mac Had Never Sounded Better<\/p>\n

With Rumors, Fleetwood Mac was looking to build off the commercial success they\u2019d experienced with their self-titled 1975 album. By all metrics, they accomplished that goal and then some, scoring a Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.<\/p>\n

Speaking with ABC News in February 2017, Stevie Nicks expressed nothing but fondness<\/a> for that chaotic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not awful at all, it was fantastic!\u201d she said. \u201cWe were rich, we were young, we were falling out of love with each other, but, hey \u2026 there was a lot of other men and women in the world, and we were all moving on. \u2026 So as bad as it was, it was still great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicks added, \u201cIf anything was keeping us from falling apart, it was going into the studio every day. And we were totally having a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been said that artists must suffer for their art. No one exemplified that adage more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29316,49,48,75,2009,341,223050,223051],"class_list":{"0":"post-583231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fleetwood-mac","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-pop-musci","15":"tag-soft-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}