Some songs never lose their intrigue. The 1979 song "Sara" by Fleetwood Mac is one of those rare ballads that continues to spark conversation nearly 50 years later. With its dreamy sound, emotional lyrics, and tumultuous backstory, many questions still linger about the song's inspiration.
By the time Fleetwood Mac began recording their third album Tusk, Stevie Nicks' relationship with Lindsey Buckingham had ended, she had embarked on a brief romance with Mick Fleetwood, which overlapped with Fleetwood falling in love with Nicks' close friend Sara Recor, whom he then married. Around the same time, Nicks also dated Eagles drummer Don Henley.
In other words, there was a lot going on. Nicks was writing songs, which included "Sara," amid all the emotions of this period, and the band continued to record together. In a 2011 interview with The Independent, she said, "Sara was banished from the studio by the rest of the band ... No one was speaking, and I wouldn't even look directly at Mick. That went on for months. And it was great fodder for writing! The songs poured out of us."
Who — or What — Was 'Sara' Really About?
There have been different explanations over the years about the song's inspiration — even from Nicks herself.
About the aftermath of Fleetwood and Recor's affair, Nicks said, "They fell in love, and the next thing, Sara's husband is calling me to say, 'Sara moved in with Mick this morning. And I just thought you might wanna know.' That was three months into a 13-month album. So I lost Mick, which honestly wasn't that big of a deal because that was a rocky relationship. But losing my friend Sara? That was a huge blow."
In a 1994 radio interview with The Tommy Vance Show, Nicks revealed that the two women reconciled eventually and that Sara indeed was, in part, an inspiration behind the song. She recalled, “I remember the night I wrote it. I sat up with a very good friend of mine whose name is Sara, who was married to Mick Fleetwood. She likes to think it’s completely about her," Nicks continued, "but it’s really not completely about her. It’s about me, about her, about Mick, about Fleetwood Mac. It’s about all of us at that point.”
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Or was the song about Mick Fleetwood?
In 1998, Nicks directly attributed one lyric to Fleetwood specifically, saying, "Well. 'Sara' was pretty much about Mick. So, he was the 'great dark wing.' And it was about everything that was going on at that particular time, too. But he was the reason for the, you know, the beginning of it."
Was the song about a pregnancy?
Another long-discussed interpretation involves Don Henley. According to the Eagles biography by Marc Eliot, Henley said that Nicks got pregnant while they were dating and that Sara was the name she gave "the spirit" of the unborn child.
In a 2014 interview with Billboard, Nicks filled in the blanks on Henley's claim, saying, "Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara. But there was another woman in my life named Sara, who shortly after that became Mick’s wife, Sara Fleetwood."
Maybe the song's inspiration never really mattered that much
The sweeping production, Nicks' vocal performance, and the song's reflective tone all contributed to the song's success. The six-minute, dreamlike arrangement and drifting, stream-of-consciousness lyrics stood apart from many late-'70s rock hits.
"Sara" was released in December 1979 as the second single from the album, peaked at No. 7 by February 1980, and remained on the charts for 14 weeks.
Almost 50 years later, fans may still wonder about the song's meaning, but the questions only contribute to the mystique. And the lyrics and the song certainly resonate for fans even without a definitive answer. Rolling Stone ranked the song at No. 13 among "Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Greatest Songs." And to date, the song has almost 128 million streams on Spotify alone.
There's a good chance all of the song's mysteries are a little bit true. Perhaps that's why "Sara" has endured. Rather than pointing to a single moment or relationship, the song seems to capture an entire chapter of Stevie Nicks' life — one defined by love, friendship, loss, and change.Heartbreak rarely comes with clear answers, and neither does "Sara." That's what gives the song its lasting power: listeners continue to bring their own experiences to its lyrics. Nearly five decades later, it remains one of Stevie Nicks' most moving and enigmatic songs.
Watch Fleetwood Mac's "Sara" music video:
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