Mick Fleetwood Joins the USC Trojan Marching Band Pre-Game Show

Mick Fleetwood joined the USC Trojan Marching Band at the LA Coliseum on Friday night in Los Angeles for a pre-game performance of "Tusk"

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is somehow still one of the most popular albums in the world

 The Mysterious, Enduring Appeal of 

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours

On Spotify, it has more streams than any Beatles album, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, or anything else from the 20th century. In 2024, it was the year’s biggest-selling rock album, old or new. (Yes, really.) What gives?

By 

Alan Light

Esquire

Almost fifty years after its release in 1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is somehow still one of the most popular albums in the world. Created in a cauldron of intraband romantic turmoil and fueled by voracious drug intake, this very week, it sits at Number 19 on Billboard’s album chart. In 2023, Rumours was the most streamed album of the twentieth century on Spotify—more than any Beatles album, more than Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, more than Nirvana’s Nevermind or Dr. Dre’s The Chronic or anything else. In 2024, it was the year’s biggest-selling rock album, old or new.

These numbers are being powered not by the Boomers and older Gen-Xers who grew up with the album in real time and made it the seventh-best-selling album in US history, but by younger generations. There is something in the music—or, maybe more precisely, in the experience of Rumours that separates it from the pack, even from the most elite. But does that allure revolve around the sound, the emotion, the mythology, or some combination of all its elements? Why does one album survive and even thrive when others—even those that felt much more influential at their peak—inevitably become dated?

To put it simply, why do kids like this old-ass album?

Curious to better understand this cultural marvel, for my new book Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, I spoke to dozens of post-millennials. One thing that almost all of them wanted to establish was that while they might have initially heard the record through their parents, or even their grandparents, the relationship they had with Rumours was entirely their own. Many echoed the idea that they were first exposed to these songs in their youth but then went through a process of rediscovering the album and relating to it for themselves, creating their own meanings for the record.

Released November 4, 2025

AMAZON

Others pointed to the various appearances by Rumours in their own popular culture as their way into the album. Music publicist Lydia Krumper (born 2000) notes a convergence of Mac references in the mid-2010s. “In 2014, Stevie Nicks was on American Horror Story,” she says. “Glee had an all-Rumours episode. I was also a big One Direction fan, and Harry Styles is a big Fleetwood Mac fan. Many things for my age group were coming out at the time when I got into it.”

Coming Soon Fleetwood Mac Limited Edition UltraDisc One-Step 45RPM Vinyl 2LP Boxset

 

Fleetwood Mac Comes into Its Own with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks: Self-Titled Record Ranked 182nd Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, Includes “Landslide” and “Rhiannon”

Hear the 1975 Blockbuster in Reference Sound: Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Box Set Is Strictly Limited to 7,500 Numbered Copies and Features Extraordinary Definition.

 1/4” / 30 IPS Dolby A analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe.

Release date: TBA

Pre-order at Mobility Fidelity

Also available at a numbered Hybrid SACD

A veteran band with waning prospects, personnel churn, and management issues. A largely unknown duo whose eponymous debut flopped. An impromptu meeting in a supermarket that led to a fact-finding trip to Sound City Studios. The backstory behind Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album is nearly as incredible as the music on the 1975 recording — a blockbuster that altered pop-rock history, and found newcomers Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks permanently changing the profile and popularity of the British ensemble.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and strictly limited to 7,500 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set of the nine-times-platinum effort plays with reference-level transparency, dynamics, and detail. Benefitting from stellar groove definition, an ultra-low noise floor, and dead-quiet surfaces, this vinyl edition captures what went down in the California studio with arresting presence, tube-like warmth, and sumptuous tonality.

Honoring the striking elements that make Fleetwood Mac a generations-spanning favorite, the industry-leading presentation of this UD1S version confirms the reissue's definitive standing. Housed in a gorgeous slipcase, it features premium foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics. This keepsake is for listeners who want to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, including the recognizable cover art positioning Mick Fleetwood and John McVie before a doorway — as well as a crystal ball showing their reflection. The hand-drawn script depicting the band's name is now inextricably associated with the quintet’s “White Album” and identity.

Shepherded by producer Keith Olsen, Fleetwood Mac used its studio time to cultivate and establish intra-band roles. The innate chemistry among the five musicians can be heard here in stunning clarity, the taut albeit flexible rhythms distinguished with palpable grip, the blended vocals and airy harmonies benefitting from seemingly unlimited frequency extension. The thrilling results speak to the band’s bond as well as healthy tension that led to recordings that more than five decades later remain revered for their exceptional realism, openness, textures, imaging, and soundstaging. And that says nothing about the freshness of the songs themselves.

Six of those tunes were written or co-written by Buckingham or Nicks, who lent the band — reeling from the departure of guitarist Bob Welch — a diversity, soulfulness, and breadth it lacked in the past. Then again, the romantically involved partners weren’t exactly burning up the charts on their own. Their Buckingham Nicks LP was largely ignored upon release and found the twosome questioning their futures. But fate has a weird way of operating, and rather than recruiting another six-string blues virtuoso into the mix, Fleetwood Mac called an audible. 

Prompted to visit Sound City Studios after telling someone in a grocery store he needed a place to record Fleetwood Mac’s tenth album, Fleetwood heard Buckingham Nicks played back by Olsen as a demonstration of the studio’s capabilities. Unable to forget what he heard, the drummer soon invited Buckingham to join his band. Displaying his now-famous reluctance to cede any creative control, Buckingham initially hedged before accepting on one condition: He and Nicks came as a package. 

That agreement stands as one of the most significant career-altering moves any band ever made. Suffice it to say Nicks’ Plan B — “we can always quit,” she reasoned to Buckingham — stayed on the backburner. After rehearsing together for just ten days and sussing out potential roles, the new iteration of Fleetwood Mac entered Sound City in January 1975 and laid down the tracks for the showstopper Rolling Stone ranks as the 182nd Greatest Album of All Time.

In many ways, Fleetwood Mac got far more than they bargained for in taking on the American duo. Buckingham and Nicks arrived loaded for bear. “Monday Morning,” “Rhiannon,” and “I’m So Afraid” had already been workshopped and penciled in for a second Buckingham-Nicks record. “Crystal” was re-purposed and re-imagined after its original inclusion of Buckingham Nicks. 

Nicks also brought another recently penned song to the sessions, a beautiful gem none other than “Landslide.” McVie later admitted that the quality of material triggered a competitive spirit within her and inspired her to take her own songwriting to another level. “Warm Ways,” “Say You Love Me,” and “Over My Head” underscore that determination. Ditto her collaboration with Buckingham on “World Turning.” 

Constituting the old Fleetwood Mac in name only, Fleetwood Mac is the sound and style of an entirely new entity, a rebirth, and a reward for perseverance and a little bit of chance fortune. Above all, however, the album — which peaked at No. 1 on Billboard more than a year after its street date — towers as a testament to then-novel combinations of hook-laden power pop, mystical folk, cool R&B, melodic rock ‘n’ roll and a wondrous balance of perfection and pragmatism, delicate and deliberate, mellow and maverick.

Indeed, from the ocean-swept breeziness of the opening “Monday Morning” through the optimistic vibes of the building “Over My Head” to the stacked structure of the closing “I’m So Afraid,” Fleetwood Mac contains not a single dull moment or wasted note. In short order, the band would attain even greater commercial success with the subsequent Rumours. Yet the restless energy, innovative spirit, breath-of-fresh-air newness, and across-the-board fantastic performances of Fleetwood Mac would never be surpassed. 

Fleetwood Mac Weekly Chart Report

 

Fleetwood Mac Weekly Chart Report

UK Chart Week: October 31 – November 6, 2025
Billboard Chart Date: November 1, 2025

United Kingdom
Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain continues its steady climb on the UK Top 100 Singles Chart, reaching a new peak at No. 67 (up from No. 74) on consumption of 6,376 units. Meanwhile, Dreams dips slightly to No. 58 (from No. 49).

On the Albums Chart, 50 Years – Don’t Stop edges down one place to No. 9 with 7,187 sales, while Rumours moves up one to No. 23.

The reissued Buckingham Nicks album slides across multiple tallies:

• Top 100 Album Sales: No. 83 (down from 53)

• Top 100 Physical Albums: No. 80 (down from 50)

• Top Americana Albums: No. 14 (down from 7)

Ireland
In Ireland, 50 Years – Don’t Stop eases one place to No. 8, and Rumours holds steady at No. 17.
On the Irish Singles Chart:

• Dreams slips to No. 56 (from 52)

• The Chain climbs to No. 59 (from 63)

• Landslide falls to No. 80 (from 75)

Scotland
Buckingham Nicks marks its sixth consecutive week on the Scottish Albums Chart, down to No. 81 (from 42). Rumours is up this week to No. 26 from No. 37 last week. Greatest Hits re-enters the chart at No. 100.

Germany
Rumours is at No. 71 this week up from No. 74 last week. 

Netherlands
Rumours moves up to No. 8 this week from No. 10 last week. 

Norway
Rumours moves down to No. 24 this week from No. 20 last week. 

 

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North America

United States
On the Billboard 200, Rumours remains firm at No. 19, while Greatest Hits drifts to No. 98 (from 93).

• Top Album Sales: Rumours rises to No. 28 (from 29)

• Top Streaming Albums: Rumours dips to No. 28 (from 27)

• Top Vinyl Albums: Rumours falls to No. 13 (from 9)

• Top Indie Store Albums: Rumours climbs to No. 16 (from 17); Buckingham Nicks drops to No. 25 (from 10)

• Top Rock & Alternative Albums: Rumours steady at No. 5, Greatest Hits down to No. 22 (from 21)

• Top Rock Albums: Rumours steady at No. 4, Greatest Hits down to No. 19 (from 17)

• On the Top 50 Streaming Songs chart, Dreams edges down to No. 32 (from 30).

Canada
The Canadian Albums Chart sees Rumours rebound strongly, surging back into the Top 20 at No. 17 (up from 89), while Greatest Hits tumbles to No. 95 (from 13).

Fleetwood Mac Gold and Platinum October Certifications

GOLD

Fleetwood Mac’s 1979 single “Sara” from the Tusk album has been officially 

certified Gold in the UK (October 31, 2025).

The single peaked at No. 37 in the UK spending 8 weeks on the chart between 

December 1979 and February 1980.

PLATINUM

Fleetwood Mac's 1987 single "Little Lies" was certified 

platinum in Denmark October 21, 2025

MULTI-PLATINUM

In New Zealand, 3 singles were certified multi-platinum in October:

October 2, 2025

Fleetwood Mac “Everywhere” 

Certified 8x Platinum 

October 16, 2025

Fleetwood Mac “Silver Springs” 

Certified 2x Platinum

October 16, 2025

Fleetwood Mac “Dreams” 

Certified 17x Platinum

Buckingham Nicks "Frozen Love" Song Exploder Interview with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham

 EPISODE 302: BUCKINGHAM NICKS

“FROZEN LOVE”

LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON · OTHER APPS

This is a must listen... 

On September 5, 1973, the first and only Buckingham Nicks album was released. It wasn’t a huge hit, but it was how the world was first introduced to the music of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, before they went on to become members of Fleetwood Mac. Their time together in Fleetwood Mac led to some of the best-selling, most critically acclaimed, and most influential albums of all time. Their individual talents, their musical chemistry together, and the ups and downs of their romantic relationship all eventually became legendary.

And yet, despite all that, the Buckingham Nicks album went out of print not long after it came out. For over 50 years, it wasn’t available until it finally got remastered and re-released in September 2025. So for this episode, I spoke to both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham about the making of one of the songs from that album, called “Frozen Love.” It’s the only song on the album where they’re credited as co-writers, and it’s the song that led Mick Fleetwood to invite Lindsey Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. But Lindsey would only join if Stevie could, too, and that’s how that story began. This episode is about beginnings and endings. It’s the story of how Stevie and Lindsey first met, and how they made “Frozen Love,” and how that song really led to the end of their band.

I also want to mention that not only was Buckingham Nicks out of print for all those decades, no one has heard the isolated tracks that you’re about to hear. To make this episode, there was an epic search for the original master tape from Sound City, the studio where they recorded the album with producer Keith Olsen. It took months, but the tape was finally tracked down and digitized, and it feels very special to be able to present this for the first time here, along with the memories and stories from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

You can buy or stream the remastered album here, and you can buy or stream “Frozen Love” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.