Fleetwood Mac: You Make Lovin Fun (1977)

     Today is Christine McVie's 68th birthday.....

      I became aware of Fleetwood Mac during their "lost" period when Bob Welch was with them (72-74), and of course like many, followed their meteoric rise to the top of the pop world with the additions of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in 1975. The voice however that always caught my attention and was such a warm counterpoint to the Buckingham/Nicks axis belonged to Christine McVie...

      McVie was born Christine Anne Perfect in 1943. Her father was a concert violin player and music professor at St. Peter's College. Her mother was a medium, psychic and faith healer. She studied piano as a teenager, and went to college to study sculpture with an eye on becoming a teacher herself. Christine played in her first band during those years but upon graduating split from the group and moved to London.

     She joined the band Chicken Shack in 1968 and stayed there for two albums until meeting John McVie in 1969. They married a year later.

     Christine had already established herself as a top notch singer before her arrival in the Fleetwood Mac camp, having won two Melody Maker awards in 69 and 70 for best female vocalist. With the departure of Peter Green in 1970, the group being adrift and McVie's knowledge of the groups songs already committed to memory, she seemed a natural to join the band on the road. Although it would be another 5 years for them to break through to a world wide audience, one of the major songwriting components for the future success was in place.

      Things didn't go smoothly between her and John, and by the time the "Rumours" album was released, they had separated. The song, "You Make Lovin Fun" was written about an ongoing affair she was having with Mac's lighting director, and was the last single released off of that album in September of 1977. That along with the gorgeous song "Songbird" are two of the many highlights of that record breaking album.

        She is now enjoying her retirement having stopped touring for the first time after the death of her father, however she was on the 1995 album,. "Time" and of course was a part of the 97' album, "The Dance". She went on tour to promote that album, but then went back into retirement after it was over.