Songbird by Rhonda_Kaye

Rhonda_Kaye - Songbird

Rhonda_Kaye

Oct 28, 2025 11:44am

I love this song and tyfl! From Wikipedia, "Songbird" is a song by the British-American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">rock</a> band <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fleetwood Mac</a>. The song first appeared on the band's 1977 album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumours_(album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Rumours</a> and was released as the B-side of the single "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dreams</a>". It is one of four songs written solely by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_McVie" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christine McVie</a> on the album. McVie would frequently sing the song at concerts. The song came to Christine McVie as the band was finishing up a recording session at the Sausalito Record Plant.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)#cite_note-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[1]</a> McVie wrote the song in half an hour around midnight, but didn't have anyone around to record it. To ensure she did not forget the chord structure and melody, she remained awake the entire night.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)#cite_note-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[2]</a>Producer Ken Caillat loved the track and suggested she record it alone in a concert style approach. Their first venue of choice, the Berkeley Community Theatre, was unavailable, so the band instead booked the Zellerbach Auditorium for March 3, 1976.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)#cite_note-Track-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[3]</a> To create the appropriate ambience, Caillat ordered a bouquet of flowers to place on McVie's piano. He then requested three spotlights to illuminate the flowers from above. When McVie arrived at the auditorium, the house lights were dimmed so her attention was immediately brought to the illuminated flowers on the piano.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)#cite_note-10_Things-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[4]</a>For the recording session, 15 microphones were placed around the auditorium to capture the performance.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)#cite_note-Track-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[3]</a> The recording session went into the next morning due to the difficulty of recording the song live in one take.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(Fleetwood_Mac_song)#cite_note-10_Things-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[4]</a> Lindsey Buckingham strummed an acoustic guitar offstage to keep the tempo. <h4>Songfacts®:</h4><ul><li>This was Christine McVie's solo on Side 1 of the Rumours album, proving her talent apart from the group. She wrote the song, sang it, and played the piano part.</li><li>This is a very personal song for McVie about the self-sacrifice of true love. <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/fleetwood-mac/songbird#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">>></a></li><li>Christine McVie has said that this song held Fleetwood Mac together during their hard times (while recording Rumours). Once the members heard this song, they thought how much they had been through and how much love they shared. <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/fleetwood-mac/songbird#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">>></a></li><li>On the Rumours tour, this was often the last song played.</li><li>Christine McVie prefers to pen her songs from another person's point of view rather than writing about herself. She told Uncut: "If you take 'Songbird' as an example, that was written in about half an hour. If I could write a few more like that, I would be a happy girl. It doesn't really relate to anybody in particular; it relates to everybody. A lot of people play it at their weddings or at bar mitzvahs or at their dog's funeral. It's universal. It's about you and nobody else. It's about you and everybody else. That's how I like to write songs."</li></ul> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/sf2KNAgl.jpg">