Some songs are lengthy labors of love, but others, including a classic Fleetwood Mac song that Christine McVie wrote in the late 1970s, fall out of an artist in one fell swoop, almost like divine intervention. Indeed, if any of Fleetwood Mac’s songs were “gifts from angels,” it would make sense that it would be this solo McVie track tucked in the middle of Rumours.
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Interestingly, if the women of Fleetwood Mac had the same kind of after-work routine as the men in the band, the song might have never come to be. (Unless, of course, angelic interventions can supersede a studio party.)
Christine McVie Called This Fleetwood Mac Song An Angelic Gift
Over multiple decades and with the help of each member’s unique songwriting talents and styles, Fleetwood Mac created an expansive repertoire that ranged from witchy and sultry, á la Stevie Nicks, folk-rock-oriented, á la Lindsey Buckingham, and downright poppy, thanks to keyboardist Christine McVie. The keys player and co-vocalist contributed some of the band’s most pop-friendly cuts, including “Everywhere” and “You Make Loving Fun.” But one composition stands out among the rest.
In a 2015 interview with Mojo, McVie said “Songbird” was the Fleetwood Mac track that meant the most to her. “Stevie and I were in a condominium block, and the boys were all in the Sausalito Record Plant house raving with girls and booze and everything. I had a little transistorized electric piano next to my bed, and I woke up one night at about 3:30 am and started playing it. I had it all: words, melody, chords in about 30 minutes. It was like a gift from the angels, but I had no way to record it.”
“I thought, ‘I’m never gonna remember this,’” McVie continued. “So, I went back to bed and couldn’t sleep. I wrote the words down quickly. Next day, I went into the studio shaking like a leaf because I knew it was something special. I said, ‘Ken [Callait, producer and engineer], put the 2-track on; I want to record this song.’ I think they were all in there smoking o****. They were all transfixed after a few bars, and I was so relieved we got it on tape.”
A Songwriting Goal Achieved In More Ways Than One
Writing a song in under half an hour is an incredible feat on its own. Writing a song in under half an hour that will become a universal anthem of love, growth, grief, and acceptance for decades to come is another accomplishment altogether. The magic Christine McVie captured with her 1977 track “Songbird” was not lost on her. According to the Fleetwood Mac keyboardist and vocalist, the solo ballad exemplified and excelled at her main songwriting goals in more ways than one.
“If I could write a few more songs like [“Songbird”], I would be a happy girl,” McVie once told Uncut (via SongFacts). “It doesn’t really relate to anybody in particular; it relates to everybody. A lot of people play it at their weddings, or at bar mitzvahs, or at their dog’s funeral. It’s universal. It’s about you and nobody else; it’s about you and everybody else. That’s how I like to write songs.”
The rest of the band knew McVie had something special, too (and, no, it wasn’t just because of their morning o**** session). “We wanted the song to sound like Chris was singing it at the end of the night after a show to an empty house,” Mick Fleetwood said. It was an effective choice. “When Christine played “Songbird,” grown men would weep,” bandmate and ex-husband John McVie said. “I did every night” (via Rolling Stone).
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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