1975 Rock Song, Written Before Joining the Band, Became an Underrated Hit

Before Fleetwood Macwas the band lineup fans came to love, Lindsey Buckingham developed a track alongside Stevie Nicks, “Monday Morning,” that became one of the group’s underrated gems.

Fleetwood Mac underwent several lineup changes before assembling the roster that would become one of rock’s most iconic. Christine McViejoined the band in 1970, while Buckingham and Nicks came aboard in late 1974 after performing as the duo Buckingham Nicks. Together, the five members recorded the multi-platinum self-titled album Fleetwood Mac, which launched the band’s most successful era.

“Monday Morning” is one of the underrated gems from the album, which was originally written while Buckingham and Nicks were still their own act. It was meant to be a part of their second LP, but the album never happened as their record label dropped them before they could get it started.

“It was very interesting because Stevie and I had done the Buckingham Nicks album,” said Buckingham on Deep Hidden Meaning Radio. “And in the meantime we’d been writing material for a second album, even though we didn’t have a [record] deal anymore. And we didn’t know where it was going to go. And ‘Monday Morning’ was one of those songs.

He added that a majority of tracks that appeared on the album were already demoed before joining the band or even meetingMac Fleetwood. At the time, the band was putting out more blues tracks, and Buckingham admitted there was some wariness about the track moving away from the genre. The track was distinctly different from their other hits, as the guitarist explained to Billboard, “If you go all the way back to before Stevie and I joined Fleetwood Mac, the application of guitar was a lot more prevalent.”

Unknown to him at the time, “Monday Morning” would become a reflection of the early dynamic that would later become the hallmark of the band’s image. Nicks and Buckingham were together when he developed the track, and amid struggles with their LP, tensions rose.

“Stevie and I, through our struggles with Buckingham Nicks, had had personal problems and had broken up and gotten back together, and she was being a bit fickle about things. And the song really was just addressing the fact that maybe on Monday everything was great, but by Friday things weren’t so great. As can be the case with relationships in general,” he explained.

The song became the opening track for the album and became a “herald of what became one of the big attractions of the band.” Between affairs, breakups, recorded fights, and relationship drama, Fleetwood Mac were known as a “living soap opera.”

Critics called the track one of the best cuts from the album and a “brilliant opener” from Buckingham. The track itself was never released as a single and didn’t enter the charts.

Related: 1973 Rock Song, Reimagined for a Hit Film, Is Still a Generational Favorite 53 Years Later