It’s been 45 years since Stevie Nicks introduced the world to Bella Donna.
The legendary singer, recently named the "Greatest Rock Frontwoman” of all time by BBC Music, spread her wings beyond Fleetwood Mac on July 27, 1981, releasing her first solo album. More than four decades later, the album remains a timeless piece of rock history.
Featuring the singles “Stop Draggin’ Me Heart Around,” “Leather and Lace,” “Edge of Seventeen” and “After the Glitter Fades,” Bella Donna wasted no time climbing the charts. The classic album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 on Sept 5, 1981.
Nicks once explained why she released Bella Donna amid the height of her fame in Fleetwood Mac.
“I think the music industry is very male oriented,” she told High Times in 1982. ”Although there are a lot of wonderful girl singers around, still I think it’s their world. I fought through six years to make this LP. In Fleetwood Mac, they would have done it. I wouldn’t have. And I would’ve let them make me as dependent as I have always been on them, because when somebody is dependent, they’re under your thumb. And they knew that I had to go and do this by myself because I had to prove to myself that I could exist on my own.”
“This was the freest thing I’ve ever done,” she added.
While she felt free, she did have to play by producer Jimmy Iovine’s rules. In a 1981 interview with ABC News, Nicks revealed that Iovine gave her some ground rules, one of them being that he expected the album to be completed in three months.
“If you want to do an album, I know that you're really used to being like the midnight cat queen that comes in whenever you feel like it . …This is not how we're gonna do this album,” Nocks recalled Iovine telling her. First of all, you only have three months, and second, I don't want to waste my time with a cartoon."
“He was saying this is not big rock and roll, this is something you have never done before, you are not a proven solo artist in any way, shape, or form,” Nicks shared, adding that Iovine told her if she wanted to take “months and months and months” to make the album, then she should “find somebody else.”
RELATED: 1981 Rock Duet Became the Biggest Hit Ever for Both Artists
Not only did Nicks stick with Iovine, but she called on several famous friends to help her with Bella Donna. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were featured on the duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” while Nicks’ ex Don Henley crooned “Leather and Lace” alongside her.
Nicks also brought in backing vocalists Lori Perry-Nicks and Sharon Celani.
In 2021, Nicks posted to Instagram to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Bella Donna.
“Bella Donna was a dream,” she wrote in 2021. “I chose Lori Perry-Nicks and Sharon Celani as my army to go on that journey with me. I wanted us to sound like the girl version of Crosby, Stills and Nash. I did not want the record to sound anything like Fleetwood Mac—that would have defeated the dream."
“I could not have been more proud of those songs – or the three months it took me, the girls – and Jimmy Iovine to craft it,’ Nicks added. “It did not break up Fleetwood Mac. If anything, it kept us together. And then – as all never-ending dreams always do – it opened the doors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – took my hand and invited me in for my own work – for the women of the world. The thing I am most proud of.”
Forty-five years after the release of Bella Donna, the album continues to resonate with fans all over the world.
Related: Stevie Nicks Recorded One of Her Most Beautiful Songs Three Times—But It Was Never Released as a Single
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