Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1977


Songbird (Fleetwood Mac song)

Buy Songbird (Fleetwood Mac song) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




"'Songbird'" is a song by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. The song first appeared on the band's 1977 album 'Rumours' and was released as the B-side of the single "Dreams". It is one of four songs written solely by Christine McVie on the album. McVie frequently sings the song at the end of Fleetwood Mac concerts.

Background



The song came to Christine McVie as the band was finishing up a recording session at the Sausalito Record Plant. McVie wrote the song in half an hour around midnight, but didn't have anyone around to record it. To ensure she did not forget the chord structure and melody, she remained awake the entire night.

Producer Ken Caillat loved the track and suggested she record it alone in a concert style approach. Their first venue of choice, the Berkeley Community Theatre, was unavailable, so the band instead booked the Zellerbach Auditorium for March 3, 1976. To create the appropriate ambience, Caillat ordered a bouquet of flowers to place on McVie's piano. He then requested three spotlights to illuminate the flowers from above. When McVie arrived at the auditorium, the house lights were dimmed so her attention was immediately brought to the illuminated flowers on the piano.

For the recording session, 15 microphones were placed around the auditorium to capture the performance. The recording session went into the next morning due to the difficulty of recording the song live in one take. Lindsey Buckingham strummed an acoustic guitar offstage to keep the tempo.

Personnel



*Christine McVie piano, vocals

*Lindsey Buckingham acoustic guitar

Certifications



Cover versions



Rita Coolidge covered "Songbird" on her 1978 album Love Me Again (album).

Eva Cassidy version

Eva Cassidy's version was released in 1998 on her posthumous compilation album of the same name 'Songbird'. Despite being released two years after her death from melanoma, the album eventually reached number 1 in the UK in 2001.[https://web.archive.org/web/20121011175044/http://business.highbeam.com/411456/article-1G1-78168044/official-uk-albums-chart-top-75 'The Official UK Albums Chart Top 75'], August 25, 2001. Retrieved May 8, 2011. "Songbird" finally charted in the UK in September 2009 at number 56, after a contestant (Shanna Goodhead) performed the song on 'The X Factor'.

Willie Nelson covered "Songbird" on his own 2006 album 'Songbird', making it the second album to be named after the song. The album peaked at number 87 on the Billboard 200.

References



Category:1977 songs

Category:2006 singles

Category:Fleetwood Mac songs

Category:Willie Nelson songs

Category:Songs written for films

Category:Songs written by Christine McVie

Category:Song recordings produced by Ken Caillat

Category:Song recordings produced by Richard Dashut

Buy Songbird (Fleetwood Mac song) now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1977



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1087593864.