Entertainment news and discussion on TalkFuse.
Stevie Nicks looked out of a window and said, “I’m going to write a fantastic song”. 50 years later it has over 1,250,000,000 streams
In 1974, while alone in Aspen and uncertain about her future with Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks wrote “Landslide” as she looked out at a snow-covered landscape. The song captured her doubts about their relationship and her own transition into adulthood; three months later, the pair joined Fleetwood Mac, changing their careers.
Nicks had travelled to Aspen after the album Buckingham Nicks received poor reviews and sales, and stayed with a friend while Buckingham was away. She wrote the song on a Goya guitar she barely knew how to play, keeping its recording for Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 self-titled album centred on a simple guitar melody. “Landslide” has since been streamed more than 1.25 billion times.
In short
- Nicks wrote “Landslide” during a period of uncertainty in Aspen.
- She and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac three months later.
- The song has surpassed 1.25 billion streams.
Explained simply
Stevie Nicks is an American singer and songwriter who joined the British-American band Fleetwood Mac with her musical partner Lindsey Buckingham in 1975. Before that, they had released an album together that received little attention, and Nicks was unsure what direction her life and relationship with Buckingham would take.
“Landslide” grew from those uncertainties and was recorded for Fleetwood Mac’s first album with Nicks and Buckingham. Its spare guitar arrangement and reflections on change have kept it in circulation across generations of listeners, making it one of the band’s best-known songs.