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The world lost a special songwriting talent when Christine McVie died on November 30, 2022. Below is a list of every songwriting credit I can find for her (co-writers, if any, are in parentheses). After the list, I provide my ten favorite songs of her. Some of my links are to their songs I first heard on their Live album.
Chicken Shack
40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve (1968): When the Train Comes Back, You Ain’t No Good
O.K. Ken?: Get Like You Used to Be (Stan Webb), A Woman Is the Blues (Stan Webb)
Fleetwood Mac
Future Games (1971): Morning Rain, Show Me a Smile, What a Shame
Bare Trees (1972): Homeward Bound, Spare Me a Little of Your Love
Penguin (1973): Remember Me, Dissatisfied, Did You Ever Love Me
Mystery to Me (1973): Believe Me, Just Crazy Love, The Way I Feel, Why
Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974): Heroes Are Hard to Find, Come a Little Bit Closer, Bad Loser, Prove Your Love
Fleetwood Mac (1975): Warm Ways, Over My Head, Say You Love Me, World Turning (Buckingham), Sugar Daddy
Rumors (1977): Don’t Stop, Songbird, The Chain (per curiam, so to speak), You Make Loving Fun, Oh Daddy
Tusk (1979): Over & Over, Think About Me, Brown Eyes, Never Make Me Cry, Honey Hi, Never Forget
Live (1980): One More Night
Mirage (1982): Love in Store (Jim Recor), Only Over You, Hold Me, Wish You Were Here
Tango in the Night (1987): Everywhere, Mystified (Buckingham), Little Lies, Isn’t It Midnight (Eddy Quintela, Buckingham), You and I, Part II
Behind the Mask (1990): Skies the Limit (Eddy Quintela), Do You Know (Billy Burnette), Save Me (Eddy Quintela), Behind the Mask
Time (1995): Hollywood [Some Other Kind of Town] (Eddy Quintela), I Do (Eddy Quintela), Sooner or Later (Eddy Quintela), Nights in Estoril (Eddy Quintela), All Over Again (Eddy Quintela)
Solo Albums
Christine Perfect (1970): Let Me Go [Leave Me Alone], Wait and See, Close to Me (Richard Hayward), No Road is the Right Road, For You
Christine McVie (1984): Love Will Show Us How (Todd Sharp), The Challenge (Todd Sharp), So Excited (Todd Sharp, Billy Burnette), One in a Million (Todd Sharp), Ask Anybody (Steve Winwood), Got a Hold on Me (Todd Sharp), The Smile I Live For
In the Meantime (2004): Friend (Dan Perfect, George Hawkins, Robbie Patton), You Are, Bad Journey (Dan Perfect), Anything is Possible (Dan Perfect, George Hawkins), Calumny, So Sincere (Dan Perfect), Easy Come Easy Go (Eddy Quintela), Liar (Dan Perfect, George Hawkins), Sweet Revenge (Dan Perfect), Forgiveness (Dan Perfect), Givin’ It Back (George Hawkins, Billy Burnette)
Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie (2017): Feel About You (Buckingham), Red Sun (Buckingham), Too Far Gone (Buckingham), Game of Pretend, Carnival Begin
Does anyone else find it funny that Sweet Revenge and Forgiveness are found in succession on her In the Meantime album? Anyhoo . . . .
Top Ten List
I’m a Fleetwood Mac nut. That said, I like to say that I was raised on Rumors, so my bias is clearly for the classic line up of Buckingham, Fleetwood, McVie x2, and Nicks. Rumors was the first album my brother owned, and Live was the first album I owned, so I listened to them both incessantly. They’re both remarkably important to me, and yet none of Christine’s songs off of Rumors made it into my top five. Go figure.
The Chain is not on this list because Christine’s songwriting credit is diluted by the fact that everyone in the band has a songwriting credit to it. But that’s a damn fine song too, and I was thrilled that it got so much screen time in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
#10. Only Over You
I received Mirage on vinyl for Christmas in 1982. This song starts off with a lyric that was downright jarring, so I skipped the song every time I was listening to the album. After a month or two, I let the album play nonstop and heard the whole thing. That’s a month without this song I’ll never get back. That specific lyric, which is repeated in every chorus, still has a bit of that jarring effect on me, but the bridge more than makes up for it.
This is Christine’s only song from her solo career that makes this list, but not her only non-Fleetwood Mac song to do so (see #5). Definitely an 80s song, and definitely an 80s video. I turned 12 in 1980 and 21 in 1989, so you can imagine why this is right up my alley. The video seems to capture Christine’s style in a different, non-big-hair way. She wasn’t flamboyant but rather stood on the strength of her music. This worked far better in the context of a band than as a solo artist, which is why Lindsey and (especially) Stevie had stronger solo careers. Still, that foundation of great songwriting is something you shouldn’t miss. Click through a few of the links on this post and give her a listen.
As I mentioned above, you’d think all of Christine’s songs from Rumors would make this list, and yet this is the only one. It’ll probably be even more surprising in light of the fact that, when I first heard Rumors, You Make Loving Fun became my favorite song by any artist. I could always listen to it at home, but when I was old enough to, for example, go to roller-skating rinks (it was the late-70s, early-80s, kids), I’d always request it from the DJs. If I was in a restaurant with a juke box, I’d give my last quarter to play it. Yet over time, the song fell further down the list of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, and even on my list of Christine-written songs. Still, if you look at only Christine’s songs, it makes the top ten. How could it not?
#7. Little Lies
When the average person (i.e., non-Fleetwood Mac maniac, assuming any such person exists) thinks of Tango in the Night, they probably think of four songs (whether by name or by melody): Big Love, Seven Wonders, Everywhere, and Little Lies. Big Love and Everywhere are hard to forget considering that they were given new life to new, younger audiences by appearing on The Dance. But it’s interesting to note that of those four songs, Christine wrote two of them without a co-writer. Obviously, everyone in the band contributes at least a little to each song — I love the Mick Fleetwood’s drum part in Little Lies — but Christine deserves the credit for giving them such a solid foundation.
#6. Say You Love Me
With Monday Morning, Say You Love Me started off the Live album with a one-two punch. Before I won this album as a door prize at a middle school dance, I had never heard Monday Morning, and more importantly I never appreciated live recordings. I thought they were rough and scrappy, and I was right. I just didn’t realize how awesome that was. Not only does it showcase how talented professional musicians are by being able to stay in tune and in beat with each other without the comforts of studio do-overs, but it also allowed them to riff a bit (see the guitar intro to Monday Morning) and switch up the dynamics of a song (see the intro to Say You Love Me). Live got me into that, and I couldn’t tell you how many times in a row I listened to the live rendition of Say You Love Me.
#5. Red Sun
This is from Christine’s 2017 collaboration with Lindsey Buckingham, which flew far too far under the radar. I assure you that this is no token choice just to make sure this wonderful album is represented on the list. I really love how this song drives despite being relatively mellow, and the harmonies are as brilliant as you would expect from members of Fleetwood Mac.
#4. Sugar Daddy
Perhaps unsurprisingly, what I love most about this song is the keyboard part, which often improved songs by other songwriters, sometimes providing the final touch to put it over the edge towards greatness (e.g., Gypsy). It’s also a perverse twist on love songs. You have to appreciate that.
#3. Everywhere
I’m glad Chevy is getting everyone on board on this song, even though it’s a shameless play at capturing the glory of the cranberry juice guy. As I discussed in my R.I.P. post, Christine had a way of breaking the tension on albums. She was capable of writing energetic music (see #1 below), but Lindsey and Stevie were mass-producing high-energy songs, especially while their relationship was crumbling. Sometimes you needed something light, and Everywhere was one of those songs that did that. It not only gave you a needed step back while listening to the first side of Tango in the Night, but also when listening to a random mix of Fleetwood Mac music. Their best songs were often heavy, but a random list of their best songs usually included Everywhere.
#2. Think About Me
I imagine this might be a surprise choice, especially so high. The composition is fairly simple, and it has a droning quality to it, at times as much white noise as music. But I always loved this song, and I associate it with getting swept up in the fervor of the Miracle on Ice from 1980 and picking up street hockey. The song was still getting plenty of airtime during that event. I never grew out of my love for this song, and it remains one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs. Music is often about association, right?
Other than the aforementioned The Chain, which involved the entire band, Tango in the Night was the one and only Fleetwood Mac album where Christine teamed with Lindsey to write some songs (at least to the extent that a co-songwriting credit was appropriate). It produced this song, which is a driving combination of Christine’s sultry, bluesy voice and Lindsey’s terrifying guitar work. It produced my favorite song among any with a songwriting credit for Christine.
So, there it is. Those are my favorites. If you disagree, that’s great; to each his or her own. But I hope this list has given you an excuse to revisit or discover some of her work. Most of us didn’t know her, so we’re not in true mourning. Instead, we’re in a position to celebrate her legacy. Do so. You won’t regret it.
Yes, Christine, it’s now midnight. Sleep well.
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Play What You Want 