Of all the classic albums in rock history, it could be said that Fleetwood Mac's Rumours might have the messiest backstory of all (and that's saying quite a lot). It's common knowledge now that the band was going through all kinds of drama during the recording of the iconic album, which was released in 1977: Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nickswere in the process of breaking up, as were Christine and John McVie.
As unpleasant as being in the studio together might have been for the band members at the time, all the pain behind the scenes resulted in some of the most popular (and relatable) songs ever, from "Go Your Own Way" to "Dreams" to "Never Going Back Again" and so many others. But while all of those tunes were inspired by Nicks and Buckingham's romantic turmoil, another one of the album's standouts was a direct result of the McVies' split.
Ranked by Ultimate Classic Rock as one of the "best soft rock songs" of all time, Christine wrote the upbeat, romantic "You Make Loving Fun." However, she didn't write it about John. The couple had been struggling for quite some time before the band started recording Rumours, as Christine told Uncut's Nigel Williamson in 2013.
"We were very happy for three years and then the strain of me being in the same band started to take its toll,” she said. “When you’re in the same band as somebody, you’re seeing them 24 hours a day and you start to see an awful lot of the bad side. There’s a lot of drinking and John is not the most pleasant of people when he’s drunk. Very belligerent. I was seeing more Hyde than Jekyll.”
In the same interview, John gave a similar account.
“You’ve got the pressure of being on the road and living with each other and seeing each other at their worst,” he said. “Chris saw me at my worst one time too many. I drink too much and when I’ve drunk too much, a personality comes out. It’s not very pleasant to be around. And bless her heart, Chris said, ‘I don’t want to be around this person.’ It was awful. You’re told by someone you adore and love that they don’t want you in their life anymore.”
By the time recording sessions for Rumours started, the couple wasn't speaking to each other. Not only that, but Christine had started an affair with Curry Grant, the band's lighting director.
Related: This 1977 Classic Ranked the 'Best Breakup Song' of All Time
“Wherever John was, he couldn’t be,” Christine said. “There were some very delicate moments.”
To make matters even more complicated, "You Make Loving Fun" was penned about Grant...but Christine didn't want John to know that.
As Rumours producer Ken Caillat revealed in the book, Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album, in an attempt to spare John's feelings, Christine told him the song was really about her dog.
Interestingly enough, the emotional fireworks that exploded during the recording of the tune came from Buckingham and Nicks, not the McVies.
According to Caillat, the couple suddenly started screaming at each other while recording background vocals.
“Stevie suddenly looked at Lindsey and cried out, ‘F—k you! You can go to hell!’ Lindsey responded with a tirade of his own. ‘When we get back to LA, I’m moving out,'" Caillat wrote.
At the end of the day, Rumours was the first album in history to spawn four top 10 singles. As Caillat put it, "Rumours probably succeeded because it was brilliant group therapy in which we all — wittingly or unwittingly — participated.”
Related: 1975 Hit Was Written in Five Minutes and Shot Up the Charts Decades Later
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