Beloved '70s Band Celebrates Iconic Album 50 Years Later

Fleetwood Mac is celebrating an exciting milestone.

According to an Instagram post shared by the iconic 1970s folk-rock band on Wednesday evening, Fleetwood Mac revealed that their hit album, Rumours, was recorded 50 years ago this week at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, a city north of San Francisco. At the time, the group had just finished a six-month U.S. tour.

Formed in London in 1967 by Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac became one of the best-selling musical acts in the world. Over their almost 60-year tenure, the band has released 18 studio albums, with their latest release being Say You Will in 2003. They were active from their start until 1995, then took a two-year hiatus, before reuniting again from 1997 to 2022. The final lineup of the band included Mick Fleetwood, John and Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mike Campbell and Neil Finn.

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The British-American rock band is best known for their eleventh studio album, Rumours, a landmark in pop-rock defined by its emotionally raw songwriting and massive commercial success. Some of the iconic hits in the record include “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain.”

Produced alongside Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut, the recording sessions took place in February 1976, amid personal struggles for several band members. Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, the lead guitarist at the time, were navigating a breakup, Fleetwood was going through a divorce with his then-wife Jenny Boyd, and John and Christine McVie were also divorced. The band also dealt with heavy drug use during this period, all of which influenced the album’s direction and lyrics. Rumours was the follow-up to their highly successful self-titled album, released in 1975.

Rumours became Fleetwood Mac’s first number-one album on the UK Albums Chart and also topped the Billboard 200, and won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 1978. In 2004, a remastered and remixed version of the album was released, including an unreleased track titled “Silver Springs” and outtakes from the recording sessions.

“I could have never planned any of this. I don’t even believe in making plans. They only create an atmosphere of disappointment. So it’s not a day-to-day situation with us, but there’s always full potential of either great things happening or totally disastrous things happening. That is very important to me personally,” Fleetwood told Rolling Stone a month after Rumours came out. “Fleetwood Mac, from point one, has been like that. We’ll always be able to move without breaking a leg.”

Today, Rumours has been named the one of the greatest albums of all time by many publications, and included in many listicles published by The Guardian, USA Today, Rolling Stone, TIME Magazine and more. It was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.

On Feb 4. 2027, the album will officially celebrate its 50th anniversary. Rumours and its Super Deluxe version can be listened to on all streaming platforms.

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