On this day · 51 years ago · 1975
51 Years Ago Today: Fleetwood Mac's Self-Titled Album Introduced Lindsey Buckingham's Guitar to the World
A producer playing a demo tape to a drummer changed Fleetwood Mac's entire sound. On July 11, 1975, the resulting album introduced Lindsey Buckingham's guitar and Stevie Nicks's voice to a band that badly needed both.
By Axel, Classic-rock desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Fleetwood Mac released their self-titled tenth studio album on July 11, 1975 (US), their first with Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and Stevie Nicks on vocals after Bob Welch's exit. Drummer Mick Fleetwood recruited the pair after hearing their duo album Buckingham Nicks, drawn in by the guitar solo on 'Frozen Love.' The album entered the charts slowly, then hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in September 1976, went 9x Platinum, and set up 1977's Rumours.
A demo tape that changed everything
By late 1974, Fleetwood Mac had a problem: guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bob Welch had just quit, ending the band's ninth lineup in eight years. Per Wikipedia's account of the album, drummer Mick Fleetwood was tipped off to visit Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, where producer Keith Olsen played him some demos to show off the room's sound. One of them was an album called Buckingham Nicks, credited to a little-known duo, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood was drawn in by Buckingham's guitar solo on the closing track, "Frozen Love," and made a mental note of the pair. When Welch's departure left an opening, Fleetwood called Olsen about hiring Buckingham. Olsen warned him Buckingham wouldn't join without Nicks. Buckingham confirmed it himself.
An interview at a Mexican restaurant
Christine McVie wanted to meet the pair before signing off, so the band set up an informal interview at a Mexican restaurant, El Carmen, according to the same Wikipedia account. Nicks arrived straight from her waitressing shift, still in a flapper dress. The meeting worked. Within three months, the newly expanded band had written and recorded a full album, tracking sessions at Sound City in January 1975 over roughly ten days. Buckingham later admitted the band barely knew each other going in: "We really didn't know each other too well when we did the album. So we mostly recorded tunes that had been worked out beforehand in our own styles."
The sessions weren't friction-free. Bassist John McVie reportedly clashed with Buckingham over the bass parts, reminding him pointedly whose band it was.
Recalled during the tense early sessions for the band's self-titled 1975 album, after Buckingham pushed for more control over the arrangements.
The band you're in is Fleetwood Mac. I'm the Mac. And I play the bass.
Bassist, Fleetwood Mac
Buckingham found a smoother creative partnership with Christine McVie, later telling Billboard that her openness to his input as a producer and co-writer was one of the first things that made him feel like he belonged in the band.
A slow-building No. 1 that reset the band
Fleetwood Mac, released July 11, 1975, in the US (August 1, 1975, in the UK) on Reprise Records, didn't explode out of the gate. Per Wikipedia's chart account, it climbed the Billboard 200 for 57 weeks before finally reaching No. 1 on September 4, 1976, more than a year after release. It went on to sell over 9 million copies in the US (9x Platinum, RIAA) and spun off three top-20 singles: "Over My Head," "Rhiannon," and "Say You Love Me." The slow build gave the band time to tour behind it and build the audience that would make 1977's Rumours a phenomenon. It remains the album that turned a struggling British blues-rock band into the Fleetwood Mac most people know today.
Chasing that fingerstyle-meets-electric tone today
Buckingham's hybrid picking style, part fingerstyle, part pick, banjo-roll influenced, isn't tied to one documented gauge from the 1975 sessions. But a workhorse nickel-wound electric set remains the honest modern starting point for that era's rock and pop guitar tone.
EXL110 XL Nickel Wound (.010–.046)
Why this one: D'Addario's own best-selling electric set since 1974, the year before this album was recorded. A general period-appropriate starting point, not a documented claim about Buckingham's own strings.
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