Recording "Songbird" by Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie

     The song "Songbird" was written by Christine McVie, the keyboardist in Fleetwood Mac, in the middle of the night. According to onstagemagazine.com, she wrote the song in about half an hour and stayed up all night so she wouldn't forget it before it could be recorded. Can you imagine? Today, just pull out your smartphone and boot up the recording app. There you have it: a rough recording so nobody forgets anything. We have it so good today!

    "Songbird" is absolutely beautiful. It's from one of the most iconic rock albums of all time, "Rumours," recorded in 1976 and released in 1977. 

    Here is the cool part,  onstagemagazine.com also states that due to the personal nature of the song "Rumours," producer Colbie Callait suggested that Christine record it alone in an auditorium setting. So that's what they did. They booked the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, California. Callait had the crew set up a bouquet of flowers on the piano with 3 spotlights on them. To set the mood for Christine, he also dimmed the house lights so that the flowers were the first thing she noticed when she entered the auditorium. Lindsey Buckingham, guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, played very soft acoustic guitar to keep the timing. 

    The recording took all night. They wanted to get the whole song in one take without stopping. Every time I hear the song, I picture Christine McVie sitting at the piano and can imagine the scene. It was a brilliant move on Callait's part to set the mood for Christine. Check out Songbird on Spotify.

Photo by Herbert Worthington, 1977

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