(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 30 January 2026 8:43, UK
In the wake of Christine McVie’s sad passing in 2022, tributes poured in from everywhere for Fleetwood Mac’s beloved songbird, confirming her status as not only a star but also a graceful presence in a grisly industry.
The dramatic outpouring was a mark of how much her music resonated with people. With ethereal grace and a sense of earthly wisdom, McVie wrote songs that appeal to our best nature. As a result, she sweetly soared to lofty heights. As Bette Midler put it, “What memories, what joy, and what a legacy.”
It seemed most of her peers viewed her in an almost saintly way. This majesty was all the more apparent in the glare of the spotlight. Some artists can be diminished under it, while others make it look like a flickering candle; McVie was certainly the latter. She was as natural a songbird as a chirping parakeet, and part of that effortless elegance came purely from her profound love of all the music that inspired her in the first place.
Quite frankly, you have to live and breathe the art form to deal with the rigours of life in Fleetwood Mac. And she was certainly inspired enough to cast the drama aside and get to the heart of the music. As she confirmed on the one occasion when she did leave the band, later expressing her deep regret about the incident. “I’m not really a solo player,” he added. “I have always needed other musicians to bounce off.”
She endured pretty much every pitfall that music can throw at you while in the band, yet this outlook of collaboration and inspiration still held strong. She dealt with the drab days of faltering record sales in the beginning; she saw bandmates fall from grace, then played alongside the man she was divorcing.
The marvellous Christine McVie. (Credits: Far Out / LastFM)
She persevered through all of this, thanks to her love of music. In fact, on the rare moment when she left it behind, she claimed she was all “music’d out”. She’d done nothing but write and then listen for decades. But even that blip didn’t last long. This gives the songs she wrote an inherent sense of sincerity and the songs she loved a measure of extra weight.
It is a sign of the soothing spirit that she possessed that one of her favourite tracks of all time was perhaps the greatest love song ever written, ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys. When selecting her favourite tunes for BBC Radio 2, she commented: “Many years ago, I was going out with Dennis Wilson for a couple of years or so. I went on the road with him. I just adored Carl [Wilson].”
Adding: “I thought was the most wonderful man, he had the sweetest voice in the world, he sounded like an angel, and that was my favourite song.”
Given her vast, spanning career in the music industry, it perhaps isn’t surprising that this isn’t the only song in the list that she has a personal connection with. As Nicks said in her tribute, McVie was her “best in the whole world since the first day of 1975.” Prior to that, Nicks’ sole songwriting partner was Lindsey Buckingham.
However, after a fateful moment of happenstance, the Californian duo would be whisked up in the whirlwind of Fleetwood Mac, and McVie clung onto them with cherishing arms. It was McVie’s arms, in fact, that welcomed them openly from the off, with one song, in particular, twisting her ear to their talents.
“As it happens, [Nicks and I] were so unalike that we really got on well,” McVie explains. “I was given a tape of their whole album. I still have it to this day and love it. I think the whole album is just so demonstrative of how their duets are together and their wonderful tightness and togetherness with each other musically,” then with her trademark room-lighting laugh, “not in any other way these days.”
Although it might now be overshadowed by what followed in their careers, McVie concluded: “It’s just one of my favourite albums. Very, very laid back and not very overproduced. Just beautiful harmonies and voices.”
The next track to feature with ties to her own back catalogue was the early Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac epic, ‘Man of the World’. The anthem very tenderly sees Green discussing one vital missing piece in the jigsaw of his content. Despite this melancholy overture, the track is still equal parts an ode to his friends and good times. With a lilting quality that holds the notes on spider silk, this beautiful gem is akin to the pillow-propped reveries that McVie herself would grace us with.
She elucidated her love for the anthem by saying: “Awestruck – everybody was awestruck by Peter. Except for Eric [Clapton], there was only Peter […]. We all thought he was just a superlative genius.” Concluding: “I just loved that song.”
Yet again, it is a mark of her humility that of all the Fleetwood Mac tracks that have touched people’s lives, McVie opted for one that embalmed her own with a blanket of beauty rather than championing one of the many masterpieces she was involved with in a more direct sense. However, I suppose that part of that explains her singular talent: in songwriting, the song itself is everything, and she had the humility to bow down to it.
You can find the full list of her favourite songs below, and we’ve even wrapped them up in a playlist, too. Quite frankly, each one is a bona fide bloody classic. Enjoy…
Christine McVie’s 10 favourite songs:‘God Only Knows’ – The Beach Boys‘Babylon Sisters’ – Steely Dan‘Raspberry Beret’ – Prince & The Revolution‘Races are Run’ – Buckingham Nicks‘Let’s Dance’ – David Bowie‘That Ole Devil Called Love’ – Billie Holliday‘I Know You’re Out There Somewhere’ – The Moody Blues‘Man of the World’ – Fleetwood Mac‘Smoke on the Water’ – Deep Purple‘Mexico’ – James Taylor
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