Christine McVie, the English musician whose smoky vocals and romantic lyrics helped catapult the rock group Fleetwood Mac to international success, the Fleetwood Mac singer/songwriter and keyboardist died on Nov. 30 at the age of 79, the band and her family announced on social media.
“There are no words to describe our sadness at the passing of Christine McVie,” the group said in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. “She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure.
“She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her,” the band added. “Individually and together, we cherished Christine deeply and are thankful for the amazing memories we have. She will be so very missed.”
In a statement on Instagram, McVie’s family said she “passed away peacefully” surrounded by loved ones at a hospital after a “short illness.”
“We kindly ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this extremely painful time,” the family said, “and we would like everyone to keep Christine in their hearts and remember the life of an incredible human being, and revered musician who was loved universally.”
McVie was once married to Fleetwood Mac bass guitarist John McVie. The turmoil in their relationship was one of the creative engines behind the band’s massively popular album “Rumours,” released in 1977.
Christine McVie penned some of the most cherished lines in the Fleetwood Mac songbook, writing the lyrics to global hits like “Everywhere,” “Little Lies” and “Don’t Stop” — a track that became synonymous with Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign.
In her lyrics, she chronicled the highs and lows of love in simple but soulful terms. “You Make Loving Fun,” one of the melodic high points of “Rumours” and a staple of Fleetwood Mac’s tours, summed up the joyful abandon of romance.
McVie channeled a more introspective mood on “Songbird,” one of four “Rumours” songs written solely by her. “For you, there’ll be no more crying / For you, the sun will be shining,” she sings, accompanied by a melancholy piano melody.
In the 1970s, when it was at its commercial peak, Fleetwood Mac sold tens of millions of records and soared into the pantheon of rock acts. Fans around the world were entranced by the transcendent music — and fixated on behind-the-scenes drama.
Stevie Nicks is paying tribute to her “best friend in the whole world” and Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Christine McVie, after her death. Nicks posted a handwritten letter dedicated to her bandmate, along with a touching photo of the two.
“A few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975, had passed away. I didn’t even know she was ill until late Saturday night,” she wrote. “I wanted to be in London; I wanted to get to London — but we were told to wait. So, since Saturday, one song has been swirling around in my head, over and over and over.”
Here are 12 of her best, and best remembered, songs.
Chicken Shack, ‘It’s Okay With Me Baby’ (1968): Before she married the bassist John McVie and joined his band Fleetwood Mac, Christine Perfect was the keyboardist and singer in a British blues band called Chicken Shack. It had a minor hit in 1969 with a smoldering cover of the Etta James song “I’d Rather Go Blind,” but the band’s debut single, “It’s Okay With Me Baby,” is more interesting to McVie’s evolution as a songwriter. She wrote it herself and sang it with a low, bluesy swagger.
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Say You Love Me’ (1975): The biggest hit from Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album — and its first as the classic quintet of Christine and John McVie, Buckingham, Nicks and the drummer Mick Fleetwood — was this cheery, mid-tempo track, destined to become one of the band’s signature songs. McVie’s electric piano certainly swings, but the sunny harmonies from Buckingham and Nicks are evidence of Fleetwood Mac’s new, pop-oriented direction.
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Over My Head’ (1975): McVie’s songs often captured the blissful feeling of getting carried away, even inundated, by romantic love. On this soft-rock classic, she recognizes the risks of falling for a mercurial partner (“Your mood is like a circus wheel, it changes all the time”) but ultimately cherishes the sensation of succumbing: “I’m over my head,” she sings in a husky croon, “but it sure feels nice.”
Fleetwood Mac, ‘You Make Loving Fun’ (1977): The high-budget studio wizardry of Fleetwood Mac’s epochal “Rumours” is on full display here, particularly in the pristinely funky sound of McVie’s opening riff on the Hohner Clavinet. McVie wrote the song about her new flame, the Fleetwood Mac lighting director Curry Grant, but according to Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel’s book “Making Rumors,” McVie initially “told everyone the song was about her dog, instead of about Curry, to avoid flare-ups.”
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Songbird’ (1977): As delicately elegant as a falling snowflake, this McVie piano ballad is Fleetwood Mac’s most enduring tear-jerker. It’s also, perhaps, the most brilliant moment of sequencing on “Rumours”: a restorative respite between sides and in the middle of some of the band’s most rousing rockers, “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain.” “I think it was about nobody and everybody,” McVie said in an episode of the documentary series “Classic Albums.” “In retrospect, it seemed to me more like a little anthem than anything else. It was for everybody. It was like a little prayer almost.”
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Think About Me’ (1979): Here’s McVie, as a songwriter, doing her best Lindsey Buckingham, rising to her bandmate’s challenge of bringing a punkier edge to the band’s sprawling 1979 double album “Tusk.” Buckingham and McVie always had special musical connection, and few Mac songs capture it better than this one: Their vocals sound particularly simpatico on the chorus harmonies, and McVie’s hard-driving electric piano provides a fitting complement to Buckingham’s fiery riffs.
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Never Make Me Cry’ (1979): And here’s McVie doing her best Christine McVie. An understated, underappreciated gem buried on the C side of “Tusk,” this tender heartstring-tugger places McVie’s angelic voice front and center, the faintest hints of guitar and keyboards forming little more than an ethereal mist in the background.
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Only Over You’ (1982): Speaking of underappreciated gems, this soulful McVie tune is a highlight of the band’s 1982 album, “Mirage,” with all due respect to the bouncy, irresistibly fun “Hold Me,” which McVie co-wrote with the singer-songwriter Robbie Patton.
Christine McVie, ‘Got a Hold on Me’ (1984): McVie only released three solo albums:the bluesy “Christine Perfect” (1970), the low-key “In the Meantime” (2004) and, most memorably, a self-titled release in 1984, when the other members of the band were focusing on their solo careers. “Got a Hold on Me” sounds, in the best way, like it could have easily appeared on any ’80s Fleetwood Mac album — it even has Buckingham on lead guitar.
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Everywhere’ (1987): A modern classic that’s still everywhere — including on a certain ubiquitous car commercial circa fall 2022 — this sparkling smash from the band’s late-80s return “Tango in the Night” remains one of Fleetwood Mac’s high watermarks. “I wanna be with you everywhere,” McVie sings on that infectious chorus, as succinct an encapsulation of falling in love as pop music can manage, as the sleek, glimmering production perfectly mirrors the butterflies she’s singing about.
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Don’t Stop’ (1997): When McVie first wrote the anthemic “Don’t Stop,” she was trying to create a song that would cheer up her ex-husband, and also hoping that Fleetwood Mac would survive the making of “Rumours.” Twenty years later, when the band reunited for the live LP “The Dance,” the song had not only helped “Rumours” become one of the best-selling albums in history, but it had also been the campaign song of the then-current president. This celebratory finale from “The Dance” — featuring an entire marching band! — turned out to be, in retrospect, a bittersweet snapshot: “The Dance” would be the final Fleetwood Mac album to feature McVie. The following year, she left the band to live a quieter life off the road for nearly two decades; she returned for a tour in 2014.
Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, ‘Feel About You’ (2017): McVie’s final album was, fittingly, a reunion with her former bandmate, and an effortless-sounding display of their particular musical chemistry. Like much of “Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie,” the doo-wop-esque “Feel About You” has a buoyant, playful spirit. After a long silence, it was a welcome return for McVie, and proof that the songbird was still drawing inspiration from places old and new.
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