4 Page Album by Album spread in the latest issue of Classic Pop (Duran Duran on the cover)
STEVIE NICKS
Renowned for her shimmering vibrato, soap opera personal life and sorceress image, the singer-songwriter helped propel Fleetwood Mac into the pantheon of all-time greats before launching a sporadic solo career which consistently mined pop gold.
May 2026 Classic Pop issue... Look for it wherever you buy magazines.
ALBUM BY ALBUM
STEVIE NICKS
RENOWNED FOR HER SHIMMERING VIBRATO, SOAP OPERA PERSONAL LIFE AND SORCERESS IMAGE, THE SINGER-SONGWRITER HELPED PROPEL FLEETWOOD MAC INTO THE PANTHEON OF ALL-TIME GREATS BEFORE LAUNCHING A SPORADIC SOLO CAREER WHICH CONSISTENTLY MINED POP GOLD
JON O'BRIEN
Stevie Nicks released an album with Lindsey Buckingham in 1973 and joined Fleetwood Mac two years later before embarking on an eight-LP solo career
Buckingham and Nicks certainly committed to their art, with both dropping out of university to pursue their musical dreams in Los Angeles. And their dedication paid off when they landed a deal with Polydor.
Heading into the studio with their early champion, producer Keith Olsen, the duo recorded a full-length album under their respective surnames.
From its gorgeous multi-layered harmonies and folksy West Coast vibes to its candid insights into a relationship which had evolved from professional to personal, Buckingham Nicks essentially set the blueprint for both their own careers and that of the British blues outfit they'd help propel to superstardom.
At times, the pair appear to be living a young dream. Crystal, later repurposed on their first album with Fleetwood Mac, finds them gushing poetically over their budding romance ("I turned around and the water was dashin' all around/ Like a glove, like the love that had finally, finally found me").
Stephanie was written as a paean to Nicks and, alongside a cover of John Lewis' tribute to Django Reinhardt, is an instrumental designed to showcase Buckingham's six-string skills. And there's a nice full circle moment on Races Are Run, with its Mamas And The Papas-esque sound throwing things back to their initial meet-cute.
But there were also signs that trouble in paradise loomed. Long Distance Winner sees Nicks address the headaches of dating a difficult musician and the duo's problems were compounded by the fact that, barring a handful of local radio stations, no one took notice of their record. In fact, such was the tumbleweed response, Nicks had to take a cleaning job to make ends meet.
Luckily for the short-lived Buckingham Nicks, and the course of popular music in general, Olsen introduced Mick Fleetwood to the LP's closer Frozen Love, a seven-minute prog-folk epic which perfectly showcased Nicks' distinctive tremble and Buckingham's virtuoso musicianship.
A joint invitation to the recently depleted Fleetwood Mac soon followed and the rest is history.
ITS GORGEOUS MULTI-LAYERED HARMONIES AND CANDID INSIGHTS SET THE BLUEPRINT FOR THEIR OWN CAREERS
BUCKINGHAM NICKS Released 1973 Label Polydor Records Chart Positions UK No.6 US No.11 (2025 reissue)
STEVIE NICKS — BELLA DONNA
The White Witch's spellbinding solo debut spent nearly three years on the Billboard 200 chart
Largely produced by future Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine, who'd just completed work on Dire Straits' Making Movies, Bella Donna wasn't too far from Fleetwood Mac's signature sound. In fact, Nicks had written most of the material while recording the band's Tusk, then the most expensive LP ever made. And it's clear that life within the 70s most drama-filled group informed much of its lyrical themes, too. Named after one of her favourite terms of endearment, the title track is a cautionary tale about the fickleness of the fame game.
After The Glitter Fades, drafted eight years earlier, bemoans the hardships that come with being a lusted-after rock goddess, Kind Of Woman covered insecurities surrounding her on-off relationship with Buckingham as he set off on tour.
Bella Donna also celebrates a sound that launched her to global fame. The Highwayman reimagines its male Mac members as swashbuckling heroes and To Anyone — and Think About It is an act of female solidarity designed to reassure fellow writer Christine McVie in the wake of her first divorce.
Nicks shows signs of distancing herself from the familiar, recruiting an ensemble — including E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan and session musician Waddy Wachtel — that would provide backing throughout much of her career. She also harmonises beautifully with Tom Petty on Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, an early MTV favourite intended for his Heartbreakers LP Hard Promises, and ex-boyfriend Don Henley on Leather And Lace, an opposites-attract ballad she'd penned for country outlaw Waylon Jennings and his wife Jessi Colter.
The album's pièce de résistance, Edge Of Seventeen, meanwhile, has more in common with another ever-quarrelling outfit, its iconic chugging guitar hook — famously sampled on Destiny's Child's Bootylicious — apparently borrowed wholesale from The Police's Bring On The Night. This is where Nicks confirmed she could cut it as an artist in her own right. Some saddening news which emerged as its parent album reached the US top spot ensured she couldn't revel in its success.
BELLA DONNA Released 1981 Label WEA/Modern Chart Positions UK No.11 US No.1
Although the marriage only lasted three months, with Nicks later acknowledging that it was simply a "deranged" coping mechanism, it did at least provide her with a monster hit. In fact, Stand Back was conceived as the newlyweds headed for their honeymoon, the sound of a little red Corvette on the car radio giving Nicks a musical brainwave she subsequently spent the night acting upon. Just over a week later, the Purple One himself rocked up to play synths on a fabulous mid-tempo number which essentially summarised her cryptic approach to lyrics in a nutshell ("Now here I go/ how I feel/ What I say unless you read between my lines").
Also featuring Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, the Billboard Top 5 smash remains one of Nicks' career highs. But there's little else on the parent album that comes close to capturing its joys. Indeed, the returning Iovine and promoter-turned-producer Gordon Perry largely stick to the template of West Coast pop, adult contemporary and soft rock which defined its predecessor. Mick Fleetwood's guest appearance on Dreams soundalike Sable On Blond and another Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers collaboration, I Will Run To You, suggests Nicks was still a little unsure about making it on her own.
Still, while the record might be short on ingenuity, it's never short of class. The honeyed tones of friend Sandy Stewart, who later co-wrote for the Mac's 1987 pop masterclass Tango In The Night, blend perfectly with Nicks' famously raspy voice on Nightbird.
Orchestral closer Beauty And The Beast, inspired by Jean Cocteau's same-named 1946 classic, showed one of the era's defining rock vocalists could also convince at the torch song.
Although far from the chart behemoth of Bella Donna, in her homeland The Wild Heart still managed a respectable No.5, sold two million copies and spawned three hit singles.
However, it was clear that Nicks would have to get a little wilder for her next solo outing.
THE WILD HEART Released 1983 Label WEA/Modern Chart Positions UK No.28 US No.5
STEVIE NICKS - ROCK A LITTLE
Ironically, this embodiment of 80s rock excess was perhaps more notable for the songs that it didn't include: Nicks turned down tracks later made famous by Heart (These Dreams), Tom Petty (Don't Come Around Here No More) and Warren Zevon (Reconsider Me).
Rock A Little, however, still contains a number of gems. Opener I Can't Wait is a thrilling blend of flickering synths, hair metal riffs and industrial-strength percussion. Rick Nowels co-wrote If I Were You appeared to set the blueprint for Belinda Carlisle's early solo career and the chugging heartland rock of Talk To Me deservedly earned Nicks a fifth solo Grammy nod.
Meanwhile, Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You? tribute to Joe Walsh's late daughter remains one of her most affecting compositions.
ROCK A LITTLE Released 1985 Label Parlophone/Modern Chart Positions UK No.30 US No.12
STEVIE NICKS — THE OTHERSIDE OF THE MIRROR
Given a shot in the arm by the success of Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night, Nicks' solo career got back on track with a fourth album that remains her UK commercial peak. The Other Side Of The Mirror not only reached No.3, it also spawned what, remarkably, remains her only Top 20 single this side of the Atlantic.
Opener Rooms On Fire is as spellbinding as its subject matter, a man with the power to leave everyone in his presence utterly awestruck. Unfortunately, the man in question, the album's producer Rupert Hine, doesn't always quite spark the same effect on record. Hine, whose past credits included acts as eclectic as Tina Turner, Bob Geldof and Julian Clary's The Joan Collins Fan Club, repeatedly surrounds Nicks' cryptic imagery ("I'm not ready to tell everybody exactly what all the songs are about," she told Deseret News at the time) and resonant melodies with an ultra-glossy sheen. Indeed, originally recorded by Laura Branigan, Cry Wolf combines a hairbrush-in-the-mirror chorus with verses that stray towards muzak. I Still Miss Someone (Blue Eyes) turns Johnny Cash's classic into watered down reggae.
Meanwhile, there are not just one but two Kenny G saxophone solos, the first on anodyne Bruce Hornsby duet Two Kinds Of Love and the second on grandmother tribute Alice.
The adventures of another Alice, Lewis Carroll's most famous character, is said to have inspired the album. Although apart from a few references to the Looking Glass and Mad Hatter, it's difficult to see exactly how.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR REACHED NO.3 AND SPAWNED HER ONLY UK TOP 20 SINGLE, ROOMS ON FIRE
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR Released 1989 Label EMI/Modern Chart Positions UK No.3 US No.10
The Other Side Of The Mirror is still largely preoccupied by Nicks' favourite topic, her chequered love life, with Long Way To Go reflecting on her acrimonious split from Joe Walsh and Ghosts appearing to add to the canon of songs addressing her relationship with Buckingham. "People don't talk about that record much, but it was different from all the others," Nicks claimed decades later to Rolling Stone, acknowledging how it's since been largely ignored compared to her earlier 80s efforts. "It was a really intense record," she told Q in 2014, "I was drug-free and I was happy." Unfortunately, this sense of solace didn't last long.
STEVIE NICKS — STREET ANGEL
Nicks has since disowned 1994's Street Angel, an album hastily cobbled together towards the end of a seven-year-long addiction to the Klonopin drug prescribed to help stave off her addiction to cocaine. Feeling so creatively bankrupt at the time, she resorted to polishing off a wealth of material that had been gathering dust over the previous 25 years.Nicks completely scrapped sessions with original producer Glyn Johns after a series of increasingly fraught run-ins. And her record label insisted on finishing the record without her input while she was holed up in rehab. Even when Nicks tried to fix what she saw as broken on her return, she was left disillusioned with the results.
Yet Street Angel isn't the car crash that its history and lowly chart position (it remains her only LP to miss the US Top 40) suggests. Indeed, a who's who of esteemed rockers — including David Crosby, Eagles' guitarist Bernie Leadon, and on a faithful cover of Blonde On Blonde's Just Like A Woman, Bob Dylan — help the album sound rootsier than its over-polished previous release (Nicks would further spruce up four songs for 1998 retrospective Enchanted, but the originals remain the definitive ones). And while those who enjoy the art of interpreting Nicks' enigmatic lyrics may
WHEN NICKS TRIED TO FIX WHAT SHE SAW AS BROKEN, SHE WAS LEFT DISILLUSIONED WITH THE RESULTS
have been left wanting, it's still refreshing to hear the directness of serenades like Unconditional Love and Love Is Like A River. Tributes to silver screen idol Greta Garbo (Greta) and conservationist Jane Goodall (Jane) also provide a welcome change of subject matter, as does the driving soft rock of opener Blue Denim, wistful country of Rose Garden and more introspective moments. British a cappella outfit Mint Juleps' Docklands are all worthy of being rescued from the vaults.
While it failed to yield any hit singles, though Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind reached No.57 on Billboard, there's little embarrassing about Nicks' commercial misfire, but there's nothing to match the peaks of her more present affairs either. More of a listenable curio than a lost classic.
STREET ANGEL Released 1994 Label EMI/Modern Chart Positions UK No.16 US No.45
STEVIE NICKS — TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA
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Nicks had been left so despondent by the strained making of Street Angel that she reportedly asked Tom Petty to pen the entirety of its follow-up, a request which the Heartbreakers' leader refused to do in the hope that she'd recognise her own talents.
It may have taken a further seven years, with the star distracted by contractually obligated hits collection and another full-blown reunion tour with Fleetwood Mac, but this tough love approach did pay off.
Trouble In Shangri-La isn't a complete one-woman affair. Nicks called in the likes of guitarist Damon Johnson, regular cohorts Rick Nowels and Sandy Stewart, as well as superfan Sheryl Crow to help write several tracks, the latter also serving as co-producer.
The Chicks' Natalie Maines also lends her expressive tones to the haunting country-ish Too Far From Texas, while the backing vocal credits reads like a 90s who's who, with appearances by Macy Gray (on Bombay Sapphire) and Sarah McLachlan (Love Is). "I take pride in knowing that people have benefited from the road I've travelled," Nicks told Billboard about the new singer-songwriter generation. However, the album's highlights come when Nicks goes her own way and strikes out alone.
The mystical folk of Sorcerer — borrowed from Marilyn Martin who bagged it for the neo-noir Streets Of Fire soundtrack — and the mandolin-led Candlelight are welcomed revivals of old tracks originally penned for Buckingham Nicks.
The surging Fall From Grace gives fans a fascinating peek behind the curtain of the band's last tour ("One night in a world of pain/ And you finally understand/ That not all the king's horses, not all the king's men/ Could put it back together"). And the celestial earworm of Planet Of The Universe, a Grammy Award nominee also transformed into a Billboard Dance chart-topper, is up there with her best kiss-offs.
Nicks was rewarded with her highest charting album in the US for 18 years (once again, the UK proved to be largely resistant). But frustratingly, it would be another decade before her stop-start solo career resumed.
THE ALBUM'S HIGHLIGHTS COME WHEN NICKS GOES HER OWN WAY AND STRIKES OUT ALONE
TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA Released 2001 Label Reprise Chart Positions UK No.43 US No.5
STEVIE NICKS — IN YOUR DREAMS
The bizarre author shout-out ("I wanna wear feathers and lace/ I wanna brush by Anne Rice") on New Orleans, a tribute to the titular city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the musical adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe poem — Annabel Lee — further proved that Nicks still had a fascination with all things gothic. Likewise, the combination of her flowing black gown and otherworldly white horse on the LP's cover art reinforces this haunting aesthetic.
Also informed by a fascinating documentary about its creative process, In Your Dreams also gave the increasingly dominant Taylor Swift a run for her money when it came to lyrical guessing games. Hailing from the previous sessions, lead single Secret Love recalls a brief fling, while its follow-up, the fragile For What It's Worth, centres on another clandestine affair ("Still forbidden, still outrageous/ Only a few around us knew…").
IN YOUR DREAMS HIGHLIGHTS HOW NICKS STILL HAD A FASCINATION WITH ALL THINGS GOTHIC
There's a similar sense of adventure in the record's feel which largely ignores the default West Coast sound in favour of ventures into barroom blues (You May Be The One), pedal steel country (Stewart duet Cheaper Than Free) and orchestral showstoppers (Italian Summer). Meanwhile, sharing Nicks' literary references extended beyond the Poe citation, standout Wide Sargasso Sea is an intoxicating blend of primal beats, squalling guitar and Hammond organs which sounds like she's summoning a storm.
A strong contender for Nicks' all-time solo best.
IN YOUR DREAMS Released 2011 Label Reprise Chart Positions UK No.14 US No.6
STEVIE NICKS - 24 KARAT GOLD SONGS FROM THE VAULT
Despite synth maestro Dave Stewart's returning presence as producer, there's little attempt to give these lost gems a radical makeover. Instead, its 14 tracks largely stick to the same harmony-laden West Coast sound which, thanks to the likes of Lady A — who guest here on the wistful Blue Water — had suddenly become in-vogue.
The stomping Stax-tinged opener Starshine, a cover of one of her late mother's favourite songs, Vanessa Carlton's carousel, and the Dixieland blues of Mabel Normand — the latter a tribute to the drug-addled silent movie actress and kindred spirit — showed that Nicks wasn't resting entirely on her laurels. But it's the Mac soundalikes, including All The Beautiful Worlds, Belle Fleur and the title track, where this alternative retrospective comes closest to justifying its glittering title.
24 KARAT GOLD: SONGS FROM THE VAULT Released 2014 Label Reprise Chart Positions UK No.14 US No.7
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