Rumours (album)

Template:About Template:Featured article Template:Use dmy dates Template:Short description Template:Infobox album Rumours is the eleventh studio album by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 4 February 1977, by Warner Bros. Records. Largely recorded in California in 1976, it was produced by the band with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut. The recording sessions took place as the band members dealt with breakups and struggled with heavy drug use, both of which shaped the album's direction and lyrics.

Recorded with the intention of making "a pop album" that would expand on the commercial success of the 1975 album Fleetwood Mac, Rumours contains a mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation, accented rhythms, guitars, and keyboards, with lyrics concerning personal and often troubled relationships. Its release was postponed by delays in the mixing process. The band promoted the album with a worldwide concert tour.

Rumours became the band's first number-one album on the UK Albums Chart and also topped the US Billboard 200. It received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. As of February 2023, Rumours had sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. All of its four singles—"Go Your Own Way", "Dreams", "Don't Stop", and "You Make Loving Fun"—reached the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100, with "Dreams" reaching number one. In 2004, Rumours was remastered and reissued, with the addition of the track "Silver Springs" and outtakes from the recording sessions.

The album garnered widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its production quality and the vocal harmonies of the band's three singers, and won Album of the Year at the 1978 Grammy Awards. Often considered Fleetwood Mac's magnum opus and one of the greatest albums of all time, Rumours was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003. The album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2017 by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, Rumours was ranked seventh in Rolling StoneTemplate:'s list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Background

After guitarist Bob Welch left Fleetwood Mac in 1974, drummer Mick Fleetwood, keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie, and bassist John McVie were joined by guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> In July 1975, Fleetwood Mac released its eponymous tenth album to great commercial success, reaching No. 1 in the U.S. in 1976; the record's singles "Over My Head", "Rhiannon" and "Say You Love Me" all reached the Top 20 there.

But the band's success belied turmoil amongst its members. After six months of non-stop touring, the McVies divorced, ending eight years of marriage.<ref name="RSINT">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The couple stopped talking to each other socially and discussed only musical matters.<ref name="dvd9min">Template:Harvnb</ref> Buckingham and Nicks were having an on/off relationship that led them to fight often. The duo's arguments stopped only when they worked on songs together.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Fleetwood faced domestic problems of his own after discovering that his wife Jenny, mother of his two children, was having an affair with his best friend.<ref name="22min">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Press intrusions into the band members' lives led to inaccurate stories. Christine McVie was reported to have been in the hospital with a serious illness, while Buckingham and Nicks were declared the parents of Fleetwood's daughter Lucy after being photographed with her. The press also wrote about a rumoured return of original Fleetwood Mac members Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, and Jeremy Spencer for a tenth anniversary tour.<ref name="brunn108">Template:Harvnb</ref> Despite false reports, the band did not change its lineup, although its members had no time to come to terms with the separations before recording for a new album began.<ref name="dvd9min" /> Fleetwood has noted the "tremendous emotional sacrifices" made by everyone just to attend studio work.<ref name="ricky59">Template:Harvnb</ref> In early 1976, Fleetwood Mac crafted some new tracks in Florida.Template:Sfn Fleetwood and John McVie fired their producer Keith Olsen because he favoured a lower emphasis on the rhythm section. The duo formed a company called Seedy Management to represent the band's interests.<ref name="brunn111">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Recording

Large, wooden building with a brown door (showing woodland animals play musical instruments) located in the bottom, centre left, and the large numbers "2200" painted in white above the door, centre-right. Asymmetrical trees with hanging foliage frame the building on all sides, while on the asphalt in the foreground, there are parking spaces and a disabled person sign.

Rumours was largely recorded in Sausalito's Record Plant, a wooden structure with few windows, located at 2200 Marinship Way.

In February 1976, Fleetwood Mac convened at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, with the engineers Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut. The three parties shared production duties, while the more technically adept Caillat was responsible for most of the engineering; he took a leave of absence from Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles on the premise that Fleetwood Mac would eventually use their facilities.<ref name=SOS>Template:Cite web</ref> The set-up in Sausalito included several small recording rooms in a large, windowless, wooden building. Most band members complained about the studio and wanted to record at their homes, but Fleetwood did not allow any moves.<ref name=dvd11min>Template:Harvnb</ref> Christine McVie and Nicks decided to live in two condominiums near the city's harbour, while the male contingent stayed at the studio's lodge in the adjacent hills.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Recording occurred in a Template:Convert room equipped with a 3M 24-track tape machine, a range of high-quality microphones, and an API mixing console with 550A equalisers; the latter were used to control frequency differences or a track's timbre. Although Caillat was impressed with the set-up, he felt that the room lacked ambience because of its "very dead speakers" and large amounts of soundproofing.<ref name=SOS/>

The record's working title in Sausalito was Yesterday's Gone.<ref name=ricky60/> Buckingham took charge of the studio sessions to make "a pop album".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> According to Dashut, while Fleetwood and the McVies came from an improvisational blues rock background, the guitarist understood "the craft of record making".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> During the formative stages of compositions, Buckingham and Christine McVie played guitar and piano together to create the album's basic structures. The latter was the only classically trained musician in Fleetwood Mac, but both shared a similar sense of musicality.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> When the band jammed, Fleetwood often played his drum kit outside the studio's partition screen to better gauge Caillat's and Dashut's reactions to the music's groove.<ref name=dvda/> Baffles were placed around the drums and around John McVie, who played his bass guitar facing Fleetwood. Buckingham performed close to the rhythm section, while Christine McVie's keyboards were kept away from the drum kit. Caillat and Dashut spent about nine days working with a range of microphones and amplifiers to get a larger sound, before discovering they could adjust the sound effectively on the API mixing console.<ref name=SOS/>

As the studio sessions progressed, the band members' new intimate relationships that formed after various separations started to have a negative effect on Fleetwood Mac.<ref name=min7>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name=dvdmin12>Template:Harvnb</ref> The musicians did not meet or socialise after their daily work at the Record Plant. At the time, the hippie movement still affected Sausalito's culture and drugs were readily available. Open-ended budgets enabled the band and the engineers to become self-indulgent;<ref name=dvd11min/><ref name=dvd32>Template:Harvnb</ref> sleepless nights and the extensive use of cocaine marked much of the album's production.<ref name=ricky59/> Chris Stone, one of the Record Plant's owners, indicated in 1997 that Fleetwood Mac brought "excess at its most excessive" by taking over the studio for long and extremely expensive sessions; he stated, "The band would come in at 7 at night, have a big feast, party till 1 or 2 in the morning, and then when they were so whacked-out they couldn't do anything, they'd start recording".<ref name=stone>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Template:Quote box Nicks has suggested that Fleetwood Mac created the best music when in the worst shape,<ref name=dvd32/> while, according to Buckingham, the tensions between band members formed the recording process and led to "the whole being more than the sum of the parts".<ref name=dvdmin12/> The couple's work became "bittersweet" after their final split, although Buckingham still had a skill for taking Nicks' tracks and "making them beautiful".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The vocal harmonies between the duo and Christine McVie worked well and were captured using the best microphones available.<ref name=SOS/> Nicks' lyrical focus allowed the instrumentals in the songs that she wrote to be looser and more abstract.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> According to Dashut, all the recordings captured "emotion and feeling without a middle man ... or tempering".<ref name=22min/> John McVie tended to clash with Buckingham about the make-up of songs, but both admit to achieving good outcomes.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Christine McVie's "Songbird", which Caillat felt needed a concert hall's ambience, was recorded during an all-night session at Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, across San Francisco Bay from Sausalito.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Following over two months in Sausalito, Fleetwood arranged a ten-day tour to give the band a break and get fan feedback. After the concerts, recording resumed at venues in Los Angeles,<ref name=brunn111/> including Wally Heider Studios. Christine McVie and Nicks did not attend most of the sessions and took time off until they were needed to record any remaining vocals. The rest of Fleetwood Mac, with Caillat and Dashut, struggled to finalise the overdubbing and mixing of Rumours after the Sausalito tapes were damaged by repeated use during recording; the kick and snare drum audio tracks sounded "lifeless".<ref name=SOS/> A sell-out autumn tour of the US was cancelled to allow the completion of the album,<ref name=RSINT/> whose scheduled release date of September 1976 was pushed back.<ref name=brunn110>Template:Harvnb</ref> A specialist was hired to rectify the Sausalito tapes using a vari-speed oscillator. Through a pair of headphones which played the damaged tapes in his left ear and the safety master recordings in his right, he converged their respective speeds aided by the timings provided by the snare and hi-hat audio tracks.<ref name=SOS/> Fleetwood Mac and their co-producers wanted a "no-filler" final product, in which every track seemed a potential single. After the final mastering stage and hearing the songs back-to-back, the band members sensed they had recorded something "pretty powerful".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Composition

Lyrics

Fleetwood Mac's main songwriters—Buckingham, Christine McVie, and Nicks—worked individually on songs but sometimes shared lyrics. "The Chain" is the only track on which all members, including Fleetwood and John McVie, collaborated. All songs on Rumours concern personal, often troubled relationships.<ref name=dvda/> According to Christine McVie, the fact that the lyricists were focusing on the various separations became apparent to the band only in hindsight.<ref name=dvd6>Template:Harvnb</ref> "You Make Loving Fun" is about her boyfriend, Fleetwood Mac's lighting director, whom she dated after splitting from John.<ref name=min7/> Nicks' "Dreams" details a breakup and has a hopeful message, while Buckingham's similar effort in "Go Your Own Way" is more pessimistic.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> After a short fling with a New England woman, he was inspired to write "Never Going Back Again", a song about the illusion of thinking that sadness will never occur again once content with life.<ref name=dvda/>

Template:Listen "Don't Stop", written by Christine McVie, is a song about optimism. She noted that Buckingham helped her craft the verses because their personal sensibilities overlapped.<ref name=dvda/> McVie's next track, "Songbird", features more introspective lyrics about "nobody and everybody" in the form of "a little prayer".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> "Oh Daddy", the last McVie song on the album, was written about Fleetwood and his wife Jenny Boyd, who had just got back together.<ref name=Caillat>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The band's nickname for Fleetwood was "the Big Daddy".<ref name=dvda/> McVie commented that the writing is slightly sarcastic and focuses on the drummer's direction for Fleetwood Mac, which always turned out to be right. Nicks' song "Gold Dust Woman" is inspired by Los Angeles and the hardship encountered in such a city.<ref name=dvda>Template:Cite video</ref> After struggling with the rock lifestyle, Nicks became addicted to cocaine; the lyrics address her belief in "keeping going".<ref name=dvd28>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Music

Featuring a soft rock and pop rock sound,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rumours is built around a mix of acoustic and electric instrumentation. Buckingham's guitar work and Christine McVie's use of Fender Rhodes piano or Hammond B-3 organ are present on all but two tracks. The record often includes stressed drum sounds and distinctive percussion such as congas and maracas. It opens with "Second Hand News", originally an acoustic demo titled "Strummer". After hearing Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin'", Buckingham and co-producer Dashut built up the song with four audio tracks of electric guitar and the use of chair percussion to evoke Celtic rock. "Dreams" includes "ethereal spaces" and a recurring two note pattern on the bass guitar.<ref name=dvda/> Nicks wrote the song in an afternoon and led the vocals, while the band played around her. The third track on Rumours, "Never Going Back Again", began as "Brushes", a simple acoustic guitar tune played by Buckingham, with snare rolls by Fleetwood using brushes; the band added vocals and further instrumental audio tracks to make it more layered.<ref>Caillat 2012, pp. 144–145. Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Inspired by triple step dancing patterns, "Don't Stop" includes both conventional acoustic and tack piano. In the latter instrument, nails are placed on the points where the hammers hit the strings, producing a more percussive sound. "Go Your Own Way" is more guitar-oriented and has a four-to-the-floor dance beat influenced by The Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man". The album's pace slows down with "Songbird", conceived solely by Christine McVie using a nine-foot Steinway piano.<ref name=dvda/> Template:Listen Side two of Rumours begins with "The Chain", one of the record's most complicated compositions. A Christine McVie demo, "Keep Me There",<ref name=dvda/> and a Nicks song were re-cut in the studio and were heavily edited to form parts of the track.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The whole of the band crafted the rest using an approach akin to creating a film score; John McVie provided a prominent solo using a fretless bass guitar, which marked a speeding up in tempo and the start of the song's final third. Inspired by R&B, "You Make Loving Fun" has a simpler composition and features a clavinet, a special type of keyboard instrument, while the rhythm section plays interlocking notes and beats. The ninth track on Rumours, "I Don't Want to Know", makes use of a twelve string guitar and harmonising vocals. Influenced by the music of Buddy Holly, Buckingham and Nicks created it in 1974 before they were in Fleetwood Mac. "Oh Daddy" was crafted spontaneously and includes improvised bass guitar patterns from John McVie and keyboard blips from Christine McVie. The album ends with "Gold Dust Woman", a song inspired by free jazz, which has music from a harpsichord, a Fender Stratocaster guitar, and a dobro, an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones.<ref name=dvda/>

Promotion and release

A blonde, female singer and a male acoustic guitarist are performing together in concert.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (photographed in 2003) were integral to the songwriting on Fleetwood Mac and Rumours.

In Autumn 1976, while still recording, Fleetwood Mac showcased tracks from Rumours at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.<ref name=RSINT/> John McVie suggested the album title to the band because he felt the members were writing "journals and diaries" about each other through music.<ref name=dvd6/> Warner Bros. confirmed the release details to the press in December and chose "Go Your Own Way" as a December 1976 promotional single.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The label's aggressive marketing of 1975's Fleetwood Mac, in which links with dozens of FM and AM radio stations were formed across America, aided the promotion of Rumours.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> At the time, the album's advance order of 800,000 copies was the largest in Warner Bros.' history.Template:Sfn

Rumours was released on 4 February 1977 in the US, and a week later in the UK.<ref name=shakers/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The front cover features a stylised shot of Fleetwood and Nicks dressed in her "Rhiannon" stage persona, while the back has a montage of band portraits; all the photographs were taken by Herbert Worthington.<ref name=dvda/> On 28 February 1977, after rehearsing at SIR Studios in Los Angeles, Fleetwood Mac embarked on the Rumours Tour, which visited North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia.<ref name=shakers>Template:Cite book</ref> Nicks has noted that, after performing mostly Rumours songs during gigs, the band initially encountered poor reception from fans who were not accustomed to the new material.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> A one-off March performance at a benefit concert for United States Senator Birch Bayh in Indiana was followed by a short tour of the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Germany in April.<ref name=RSINT/><ref name=billint/> Nigel Williamson of Uncut called Fleetwood Mac's performances "rock's greatest soap opera".Template:Sfn "Dreams", released in March 1977, became the band's only number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 that June.<ref name=bb/>

Deluxe edition

Rumours was reissued on 28 January 2013 as a six-disc super deluxe edition box set, for the album's 35th anniversary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> The set included four CDs that were divided into: a remastered version of the original album that features "Silver Springs"; a dozen unreleased live recordings from the 1977 "Rumours" world tour; sixteen new and unreleased tracks from the album's recording sessions, titled "More From The Recording Sessions"; and another eighteen session tracks, previously found on the 2004 reissue of the album, titled as "Recording Sessions, Roughs & Outtakes".<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The last two discs were a 140-gram gatefold vinyl edition of the album and a DVD of "The Rosebud Film", a documentary created by Michael Collins to promote the European leg of the "Rumours" tour, with behind-the-scenes interviews, rehearsal footage and live performances.<ref name=":0" />

Among the extra content on discs three and four, two different demos of "Planets of the Universe" were featured. Written by Nicks in 1976 during the recording of Rumours about her breakup with Buckingham, the song was rehearsed for the album but never recorded.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> A new version would officially be released on Nicks' 2001 solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La.<ref name=":1" /> Another Nicks-penned demo, "Think About It", was included on disc four. Written in 1975 and dedicated to Christine McVie, the finished recording would end up on her 1981 album, Bella Donna.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rumours Live

Template:Main On 8 September 2023 Fleetwood Mac released a live album from the Rumours Tour, titled Rumours Live.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> Recorded by Ken Caillat on the band's opening night at The Forum on 29 August 1977, its setlist was mostly taken from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, except for 1969's "Oh Well".<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref> The live recording of "Gold Dust Woman" appeared as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of Live, but the show's other seventeen tracks had previously been unreleased.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rumours Live was issued in two physical formats: a two-CD set, and a double-LP gatefold edition, pressed on 180g black vinyl, with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. A clear vinyl version of the LPs was also available.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

Critical reception

Rumours has been acclaimed by music critics since its release. Robert Christgau, reviewing in The Village Voice, described it as "more consistent and more eccentric" than its predecessor. He added that it "jumps right out of the speakers at you".<ref name=xgau>Template:Cite news</ref> Rolling Stone magazine's John Swenson believed the interplay among the three vocalists was one of the album's most pleasing elements; he stated, "Despite the interminable delay in finishing the record, Rumours proves that the success of Fleetwood Mac was no fluke."<ref name=RS>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In a review for The New York Times, John Rockwell said the album is "a delightful disk, and one hopes the public thinks so, too",<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref> while Dave Marsh of the St. Petersburg Times claimed the songs are "as grandly glossy as anything right now".<ref name=SPT>Template:Cite news</ref> Robert Hilburn was less receptive and called Rumours a "frustratingly uneven" record in his review for the Los Angeles Times,<ref name=LAT>Template:Cite news</ref> while Juan Rodriguez of The Gazette suggested that, while the music is "crisper and clearer", Fleetwood Mac's ideas are "slightly more muddled".<ref name=TMG>Template:Cite news</ref> The album finished fourth in The Village VoiceTemplate:'s 1977 Pazz & Jop critics' poll, which aggregated the votes of hundreds of prominent reviewers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Rumours five stars and noted that, regardless of the voyeuristic element, the record was "an unparalleled blockbuster" because of the music's quality; he concluded, "Each tune, each phrase regains its raw, immediate emotional power—which is why Rumours touched a nerve upon its 1977 release, and has since transcended its era to be one of the greatest, most compelling pop albums of all time."<ref name=AMG/> According to Slant MagazineTemplate:'s Barry Walsh, Fleetwood Mac drew on romantic dysfunction and personal turmoil to create a timeless, five-star record,<ref name=slant>Template:Cite web</ref> while Andy Gill of The Independent claimed it "represents, along with The Eagles Greatest Hits, the high-water mark of America's Seventies rock-culture expansion, the quintessence of a counter-cultural mindset lured into coke-fuelled hedonism".<ref name=THEINDEPENDENT/> In 2007, the BBC's Daryl Easlea labelled the sonic results as "near perfect", "like a thousand angels kissing you sweetly on the forehead",<ref name=BBC>Template:Cite web</ref> while Patrick McKay of Stylus Magazine wrote, "What distinguishes Rumours—what makes it art—is the contradiction between its cheerful surface and its anguished heart. Here is a radio-friendly record about anger, recrimination, and loss."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Commercial performance

Rumours was a huge commercial success and became Fleetwood Mac's second US number-one record, following the 1975 eponymous release.<ref name=bb>Template:Cite web</ref> It stayed at the top of the Billboard 200 for 31 non-consecutive weeks,<ref name=ricky60>Template:Harvnb</ref> while also reaching number one in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,<ref name=billint/> and New Zealand.<ref name="NZchart">Template:Cite web</ref> It re-entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 11 in May 2011, and the Australian ARIA chart at number 2, after several songs from the album were used for the "Rumours" episode of the American TV series Glee.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It re-entered the Billboard 200 top ten in October 2020 in the wake of a viral TikTok by Nathan Apodaca which showed him skateboarding while "Dreams" played, even prompting Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to create similar videos.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The album was certified platinum in America and the UK within months of release after one million units and 300,000 units were shipped, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite web Note: User search required.</ref><ref name=BPI/> All three major US trade publications—Billboard, Cash Box, and Record World—named it Album of the Year for 1977.<ref name=ad/> After a debut at number seven, Rumours peaked at the top of the UK Albums Chart in January 1978, becoming Fleetwood Mac's first number one album in the country.<ref name="UKchart">Template:Cite web</ref> In February, the band and co-producers Caillat and Dashut won the 1978 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.<ref name=bb/> By March, the album had sold over 10 million copies worldwide, including over eight million in the US alone.<ref name=ad>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

By 1980, 13 million copies of Rumours had been sold worldwide.<ref name=Worldwide>Template:Cite news</ref> As of 2017, sales were over 40 million copies.<ref name="rollingstone.com">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=Caillat /> Template:As of, Rumours has spent over 1,000 weeks in the top 100 of the UK Albums Chart.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is the 11th-best-selling album in UK history, and is certified 14× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, the equivalent of 4.2 million units shipped.<ref name=BPI>Template:Cite web Note: User search required.</ref> The record has received a Diamond Award from the Recording Industry Association of America for a 20× platinum certification or 20 million copies shipped, making it, Template:As of, tied for the 11th-highest certified album in US history (by number of copies shipped).<ref name="riaa best-selling">Template:Cite web.</ref> Rumours was the UK's bestselling album on vinyl during 2020, with the Official Charts Company confirming 32,500 annual sales in the format.<ref name="udiscovermusic.com">Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

Mick Fleetwood has called Rumours "the most important album we ever made", because its success allowed the group to continue recording for years to come.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Pop culture journalist Chuck Klosterman links the record's sales figures to its "really likable songs" but suggests that "no justification for greatness" is intrinsically provided by them.<ref name=pop>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1997, The Guardian surveyed renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs, who placed the record at number 78 in the list of the 100 Best Albums Ever.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1998, Fleetwood produced and released Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, an album that consisted of one cover of each song off Rumours by an act influenced by it, including alternative rock bands Tonic, Matchbox 20, and Goo Goo Dolls; Celtic rock groups The Corrs and The Cranberries; and singer-songwriters Elton John, Duncan Sheik, and Jewel.<ref>Template:Cite magazineTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Other acts influenced by Rumours include baroque pop artist Tori Amos,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> hard rock group Saliva,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and art pop singer Lorde, who called it a "perfect record".<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref>

Rumours has frequently been considered one of the greatest albums of all time. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, Q placed it at number three—behind The Clash's London Calling and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon—in its list of 50 Best Albums of the 70s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1999, Vibe featured it as one of 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2001, VH1 ranked the record at number 16 during its 100 Greatest Albums countdown,<ref name="pop" /> while Slant included it as one of 50 Essential Pop Albums.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same year, USA Today placed Rumours at number 23 in its Top 40 Albums list,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while Rolling Stone ranked it at number 25 in its special issue of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", in 2003, the highest Fleetwood Mac placement,<ref name="RSLIST">Template:Cite magazine</ref> number 26 in a 2012 revised list,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and number 7 in the 2020 and 2023 lists.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2000, it was voted number 31 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.<ref name="Larkin">Template:Cite book</ref> In 2006, Time named it in its All-TIME 100 Albums shortlist,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> while Mojo featured it in its unnumbered list of 70 from the 1970s: Decade's Greatest Albums.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The record is included in both The GuardianTemplate:'s "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref name=g1000>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For the 2013 reissue of the album, PitchforkTemplate:'s Jessica Hopper gave the album a rare 10 out of 10, earning it a "best new reissue" designation.<ref name="Hopper"/>

The 2023 Tony-award-winning play Stereophonic is a fictionalized depiction of the recording sessions for the album. In 2024, sound engineer Ken Caillat sued the creators of the play, alleging that they adapted his memoir Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album without permission.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Track listing

"Silver Springs", written by Stevie Nicks, has been included on some reissues as either track 6, 7 or 12 of the album, depending on the pressing. Many cassette releases swapped the positions of "Second Hand News" and "I Don't Want to Know".

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes, AllMusic, and Making of Rumours.<ref name=dvda/><ref name="AMG" /><ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Fleetwood Mac

• Lindsey Buckingham – vocals, guitars, percussion (on "Second Hand News" and "You Make Loving Fun")
• Stevie Nicks – vocals
• Christine McVie – vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, vibraphone (on "Dreams")
• John McVie – bass guitar
• Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion, electric harpsichord (on "Gold Dust Woman")

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2 Production

• Fleetwood Mac – producers
• Ken Caillat; Richard Dashut – producers, engineers
• Chris Morris – assistant engineer
• Rhyno; Ray Lindsey; Jeff Jacobs – studio crew
• Ken Perry; Charlie Watts – mastering
• Seedy Management – management

Template:Col-2 Artwork

• Desmond Strobel – album design
• Herbert W. Worthington – photography, concept
• Fleetwood Mac – concept
• Larry Vigon/Vigon Nahas Vigon – hand lettering

Charts

Weekly charts

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Weekly chart performance for Rumours

Chart (1977–2025)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name=billint>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1
Canadian Albums (RPM)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1
Croatian International Albums (HDU)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10
Greek Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1
Icelandic Albums (Tónlistinn)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	4
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	33
South African Albums Chart<ref name=ad/>	1

Year-end charts

Template:Album chart

1977 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (1977)	Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	3
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	2
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	11
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	5
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1

Template:Album chart

1978 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (1978)	Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	7
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	17
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	11
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	7
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	3

2011 year-end chart for Rumours

Chart (2011)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	170

2013 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2013)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	78
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	159
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	51

2014 year-end chart for Rumours

Chart (2014)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	100

2016 year-end chart for Rumours

Chart (2016)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	71

2017 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2017)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	44
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	155
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	23

2018 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2018)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	99
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	48
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	91
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	9

2019 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2019)	Position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	65
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	30
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	90
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	13

2020 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2020)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	27
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	91
Canadian Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	47
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	49
Icelandic Albums (Tónlistinn)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	49
Irish Albums (IRMA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	18
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	59
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	14
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	53
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	3

2021 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2021)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	21
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	53
Canadian Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	30
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	64
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	36
Icelandic Albums (Tónlistinn)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	57
Irish Albums (IRMA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	14
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	12
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	50
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	17
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	34
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	3

2022 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2022)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	43
Canadian Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	42
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	90
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	14
Icelandic Albums (Tónlistinn)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	63
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	10
Portuguese Albums (AFP)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	25
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	73
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	20
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	30
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	1

2023 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2023)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	26
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	67
Canadian Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	31
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	77
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	9
Icelandic Albums (Tónlistinn)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	41
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	5
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	35
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	22
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	25
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	3

2024 year-end charts for Rumours

Chart (2024)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	24
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	54
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	77
Canadian Albums (Billboard)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	33
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	76
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	8
Icelandic Albums (Tónlistinn)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	62
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	33
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	23
US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	34

See also

• List of best-selling albums in Australia
• List of best-selling albums in New Zealand

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite video
• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Rumours lyrics at Rhapsody
• Rumours promotion at the 12 February 1977 [Vol. 89, No. 6] issue of Billboard via Google Books