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1. “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac
“Rumours” is the definitive breakup album — a prismatic display of heartbreak, where every composer has their own ax to grind.
The real-life drama that fueled “Rumours” has been thoroughly documented and even turned into fiction. As Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, and John McVie decamped to Florida in the mid-’70s to write their second album together, the bandmates’ relationships became increasingly tangled.
Around this time, Nicks broke up with Buckingham after several years as a couple, though neither was happy with the decision. The McVies were going through a divorce while Christine began dating the band’s lighting director, Curry Grant. Fleetwood was also divorcing his wife, Jenny Boyd; they remarried in 1977, the same year “Rumours” was released, but it wasn’t long before Fleetwood and Nicks began having an affair. Everyone was writing songs to and about each other, and no one was trying to hide it.
The tracklist reflects every texture and shade of the band’s entwined turmoil, from Christine’s post-divorce stroke of clarity (“Don’t Stop”) and Buckingham’s indignant kiss-off (“Go Your Own Way”) to Nicks’ eerie snapshot of rock stardom and its illusion-shattering vices (“Gold Dust Woman”).
No fewer than three tracks also happen to be some of the greatest ever made: “Dreams,” “The Chain,” and, of course, “Silver Springs,” an archetypal Nicks song that was cut from the album’s standard edition and replaced by the poppier Nicks-Buckingham duet “I Don’t Want to Know.” When Fleetwood broke the news of the swap to Nicks, “I started to scream bloody murder,” she told Rolling Stone.
As it turned out, “Silver Springs” was the final, key piece to secure the album’s legacy — witchy, feminine rage distilled to its purest form. After Nicks delivered that famous unblinking performance of the song at a Fleetwood Mac reunion show, it was released as a live recording on 1997’s “The Dance” and earned a Grammy nomination for best pop duo/group performance.
“Silver Springs” was eventually included on deluxe versions of “Rumours,” becoming a cult favorite, a staple on the band’s setlist, and fulfilling the author’s fateful prophecy: “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.”
Read about the 50 best breakup songs of the 21st century and listen to the complete list on Spotify.
