Fleetwood Mac makes way onto chart with “Go Your Own Way”

Go Your Own Way Fleetwood Mac

Writer(s): Lindsey Buckingham (see lyrics here) Released: December 1976 First Charted: January 1, 1977 Peak: 10 US, 10 CB, 10 HR, 8 RR, 45 AC, 1 CL, 38 UK, 11 CN, 20 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 2.0 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 124.5 video, 701.13 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The recording sessions for Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours were frought with extensive drug use and fractured relationships. Bassist John McVie and singer Christine McVie’s marriage crumbled, as did drummer Mick Fleetwood’s. Guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks, who’d just joined the band on the previous album, were also splitting up. She’d been romantically linked with the Eagles’ Don Henley and Jefferson Starship’s Paul Kanter and written songs about her breakup with Buckingham. He responded with “Go Your Own Way,” his “scathing” SJ “answer record” MA in which he slams her, singing, “shacking up is all you want to do.” Nicks demanded that he remove the lyric, but he kept it. She said he “knew it wasn’t true” WK and that she hadn’t been with anyone else while they were together. SF She said he wrote it to push her buttons, saying “I’ll make you suffer for leaving me.” WK The song, in which Buckingham aspired to create a groove groove similar to the drum feel of the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” WK became the lead single from Rumours and the band’s first top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It produced demand for the album: pre-orders hit 800,000 copies, the largest advance sales in Warner Brothers’ history at that time. WK Much of the album’s success can be attributed to Buckingham. He “had the studio savvy and production diligence to make their records far livelier models of craftmanship than ordinary pop-rock.” MA Co-producer Richard Dashpot said “It wasn’t necessary or even expedient for them all to be in the studio at once. Virtually every track is either an overdub, or lifted from a separate take of that particular song. What you hear is the best pieces assembled, a true aural college.” TC Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 741. SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. New York, NY; Warner Brothers, Inc. Page 32. MA Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New York, NY; New American Library. Page 319. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/10/2020; last updated 11/5/2022.