Fleetwood Mac “Rumors” 1977. Spinning what’s considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time today in honor of Christine McVie who died yesterday, November 30th. Rumors was the band’s 11th studio LP and 45 years later still remains one of the best-selling records of all-time. It hit #1 in the US and UK (among many other countries) and continued to re-chart throughout subsequent years, including in 2022 at #30 in the US. I was a relative latecomer to the awesomeness that is Rumors, a near-perfect record that absolutely sounds best on vinyl, that format giving it the warmth and depth that was intended in its recording. I’m sure I heard it on the radio in the 70’s and 80’s but it wasn’t til college in the late 80’s/early 90’s that I started to listen to Rumors in its entirety. It started with some guys I hung out with who listened to it a lot while partying and culminated with the 1992 presidential election of Bill Clinton: my roommate and I threw an epic election night party at our apartment and you bet we all danced and sang our asses off to “Don’t Stop,” Clinton’s official election-night song. (Fleetwood Mac then performed it live at Clinton’s inauguration in ’93.) “Don’t Stop” is a Christine McVie-penned track; the single was a hit, going to #3 in the US. It’s a glorious, feel-great anthem that McVie wrote about her separation from her husband, John McVie. Christine McVie also wrote “You Make Loving Fun” which is about the affair she was having with the band’s lighting director; she told John McVie the song was about their dog (the split that inspired “Don’t Stop” now completely understandable). She also wrote the beautiful ballad “Songbird” and “Oh Daddy.” My other non-Christine McVie top tracks are pretty much the rest of the record, but more than the others: “Second Hand News,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Go Your Own Way” (it hit #10 in the US), “I Don’t Want to Know” and “The Chain” which is the only track on Rumors that credits all five band members for writing. “The Chain” is wickedly dark song that the band basically spliced together from a bunch of previously rejected songs. I just realized that is pretty much the entirety of the record. Rumors really is perfect.