Fleetwood Mac – Rhiannon

Ten Minutes, A Novel From An Airport, And Fourteen Tape Splices

Released as a single on February 4, 1976, “Rhiannon” peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June and reached number four in Canada. The song spent 18 weeks on the American chart. A 1978 UK reissue reached number 46 after the massive success of Rumours reignited interest in the band’s earlier work. Rolling Stone ranked it number 488 on their 500 Greatest Songs list and number six among the 50 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs. For a track Stevie Nicks wrote in ten minutes after reading a novel she bought at an airport, this became her signature song and the moment she established herself as rock’s most mystical presence.

The single helped push the self-titled 1975 Fleetwood Mac album to number one on the Billboard 200, though it took 57 weeks to reach the top. The album eventually sold over nine million copies in the United States alone and earned nine-times platinum certification. Three singles from the album reached the top 20, with both this track and “Say You Love Me” stalling at number 11. Nicks frequently introduced the song live as being about an old Welsh witch, and her performances took on what drummer Mick Fleetwood called an exorcism-like intensity. Between 1975 and 1982, the live versions built to theatrical climaxes where her vocals became so impassioned they felt supernatural.

Nicks discovered the name Rhiannon in 1973 while reading the novel Triad by Mary Bartlet Leader, which she had purchased at an airport before a long flight. The book features a woman named Branwen possessed by the spirit of another woman named Rhiannon. The name struck Nicks as beautiful, and she wrote the entire song ten minutes later while sitting with Lindsey Buckingham at the piano. She had no idea at the time that Rhiannon was actually a Welsh goddess from medieval prose tales called the Mabinogion. When a fan sent her four paperback novels exploring Welsh mythology in 1978, five years after writing the song, she was astonished to discover her lyrics matched the ancient stories perfectly. She later bought the rights to Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogion adaptation and began planning a Rhiannon project that would include unreleased songs like “Three Birds of Rhiannon” and “Forest of the Black Roses.”

Producer Keith Olsen recorded the track at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, where the sessions proved extraordinarily difficult. Buckingham had envisioned a syncopated, textured drum pattern that didn’t suit Mick Fleetwood’s blues-rock style. After two days of failed takes, Olsen captured two performances that each had merit but serious flaws. The first take had magic but too many mistakes. The second was technically cleaner but lacked that indefinable spark. Olsen used analog tape and a razor blade to physically splice together the best sections from both takes, creating approximately 14 or 15 cuts to piece the final version together. The process left mini scars in some cymbal crashes. Buckingham played his white Gibson Les Paul Custom through specific frequency adjustments that Olsen engineered, scooping out midrange to create that distinctive tone. Nicks’ vocals were processed through a Lexicon Delta T Delay unit.

The song appeared on the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album released July 11, 1975, the first record featuring the Buckingham-Nicks lineup. The track had originally been slated for a second Buckingham Nicks album that never materialized. When Mick Fleetwood visited Sound City Studios in 1974, Olsen played him “Frozen Love” from the Buckingham Nicks record to demonstrate the studio’s capabilities. Fleetwood heard Buckingham’s guitar solo and made a mental note. After guitarist Bob Welch quit, Fleetwood contacted Olsen about hiring Buckingham, who refused unless Nicks could join as well. The album marked the beginning of Fleetwood Mac’s transformation from a respected blues-rock outfit to global superstars. Nicks later said they kicked that album in the ass by playing everywhere and selling it through sheer determination.

When Nicks left Fleetwood Mac in 1991, replacement singer Bekka Bramlett refused to perform the song live, insisting her voice was unsuitable and calling the decision honorable. Christine McVie agreed. The song returned to setlists when Nicks rejoined in 1997, and has remained a staple ever since, appearing on tours through 2019. A 1980 performance appeared on the Live album. The 1997 reunion album The Dance featured a version with a new slow introduction. Nicks mentioned in 2020 that she had resumed work on the Rhiannon miniseries project, earmarking ten unreleased songs for what would become a television adaptation of the Welsh mythology that inspired her four decades earlier.

Mick Fleetwood called her live performances an exorcism, and he wasn’t exaggerating. When Nicks sang those final lines about dreams unwinding and being taken to the sky, something shifted. The song starts in third person but ends in first, as if Rhiannon herself takes over mid-performance. Sometimes a writer channels something bigger than themselves, and sometimes they spend the rest of their life trying to understand what came through. Nicks bought a novel at an airport, wrote a song in ten minutes, and accidentally tapped into Welsh mythology she knew nothing about. Then a producer spent hours with tape and razors splicing together drum takes that shouldn’t have worked. That’s not craft or calculation. That’s the kind of magic you can’t manufacture, the kind that happens when fourteen tape splices and one airport paperback conspire to change rock music forever.

“Rhiannon” – Single by Fleetwood Mac from the album Fleetwood Mac
B-side: “Sugar Daddy”
Released: February 1976 (US), April 1976 (UK)
Recorded: February 1975
Label: Reprise
Songwriter: Stevie Nicks
Producers: Fleetwood Mac, Keith Olsen
Charted No.11 in US and No.46 in UK

The official music video remastered in HD for Fleetwood Mac – “Rhiannon” from the 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac”.