Buckingham Nicks

Prior to recording the album Buckingham Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks performed together in the Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fleetwoodmac.net/fwm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=67&Itemid=81|title=Stevie Nicks|website=fleetwoodmac.net|access-date=March 21, 2020}}{{cite web|url=http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/fwm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=80|title=Lindsey Buckingham|website=fleetwoodmac.net|access-date=March 21, 2020}} The pair met while they were both attending Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, south of San Francisco. At the time, Nicks was a senior in high school and Buckingham, one year younger than she, was a junior.{{Cite book|last=Brackett|first=Donald|title=Fleetwood Mac: 40 Years of Creative Chaos|publisher=Praeger|year=2007|isbn=978-0275993382|location=Westport, Connecticut|language=en}} According to Nicks, they first met at a casual, after-school Young Life gathering in 1966.{{Cite web|url=http://www.inherownwords.com/earlyyrs2.htm|title=The Early Years II 1966-1975|website=Stevie Nicks In Her Own Words|access-date=March 21, 2020}} Nicks and Buckingham found themselves harmonizing to what some accounts claim was a Beach Boys song, although Nicks herself claims they sang "California Dreamin'," a hit single by the Mamas and the Papas, in an interview she gave with The Source in 1981. Nevertheless, Nicks and Buckingham did not collaborate again for another two years. In 1968 Buckingham invited Nicks to sing in Fritz, a band for which he was playing bass guitar and which included some of his high school friends. Nicks talks about joining Fritz in an interview with Us Magazine from 1988:

I met Lindsey when I was a senior in high school and he was a junior, and we sang a song together at some after-school function. Two years later, in 1968, he called me and asked me if I wanted to be in a rock & roll band. I had been playing guitar and singing pretty much totally folk-oriented stuff. So I joined the band, and within a couple of weeks we were opening for really big shows: Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin. All of a sudden I was in rock & roll.

While performing with Fritz, Nicks had attended San Jose State University, studying Speech Communication. Buckingham joined her at college, also managing to balance school and music. Although Nicks and Buckingham never performed their own original music while in Fritz, the band provided them with the opportunity to gain experience on stage, performing in front of crowds while opening for wildly successful rock and roll acts. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin of Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jimi Hendrix, whom Fritz also opened for, would all prove influential on Nicks and her developing stage persona.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2013/03/17/174494011/stevie-nicks-when-we-walk-into-the-room-we-have-to-float-in-like-goddessses|title=Stevie Nicks: 'When We Walk Into The Room, We Have To Float In Like Goddesses'|last=Powers|first=Ann|date=March 17, 2017|website=NPR|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2020}}

The band manager, David Forrester, worked hard to secure a record deal for Fritz, despite their sound differing from the harder, psychedelic music of their more popular contemporaries.{{Cite book|last=Brunning|first=Bob|title=The Fleetwood Mac Story: Rumours and Lies|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=2004|isbn=978-1-844490110|location=London|language=en}} Fritz was brought to the attention of Keith Olsen, who was serving as a record producer and had recently formed his own company with entrepreneurs Ted Feigin and Lee Lasseff called Anthem Records.{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Blake (author) |title=The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac |publisher=Pegasus Books |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-63936-732-0 |location=New York |pages=158–159 |chapter=Buckingham Nicks: The Inside Story of Lindsey and Stevie's Pre-Fleetwood Mac Duo}} Upon seeing the band perform in San Jose, California, Olsen encouraged Nicks and Buckingham to record a demo at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles without the remaining members of Fritz. Lasseff secured a distribution deal for the duo with Polydor Records.

In 1972, the two wrote a series of songs, recording demo tapes at night in Daly City on a half-inch four-track Ampex tape machine Buckingham kept at the coffee roasting plant belonging to his father.{{Cite magazine|last=Schruers|first=Fred|date=October 30, 1997|title=Back on the Chain Gang|url=http://www.nicksfix.com/rs103097.htm|magazine=Rolling Stone|issue=772|access-date=March 21, 2020}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.mixonline.com/recording/music-lindsey-buckingham-two-worlds-366253|title=Music: Lindsey Buckingham in Two Worlds|last=Jennings-x|first=Steve|date=February 1, 2011|website=Mixonline|language=en-US|access-date=March 21, 2020|quote=When I was about 21 some relative I didn't even know left me something like $10,000, so one of the things I did with that money was go out and buy an old Ampex half-inch 4-track—like the kind they recoded Sgt. Pepper's on, I guess. At that time, my dad had this small coffee plant in Daly City [south of San Francisco]—they were coffee roasters—and at night I would go up there with Stevie, and a lot of times just by myself, and work on songs and demos.}} They decided to drop out of college and move to Los Angeles to pursue a record deal. Taking the Ampex tape machine with them, they continued recording songs, including "Frozen Love", "Races are Run", and "Crystal". Nicks worked several jobs, as a hostess at Bob's Big Boy,{{Cite book|last=Howe|first=Zoë|title=Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams and Rumours|date=October 13, 2014|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-1783231287|location=London|language=en}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/stevie-nicks-magic-act-242776/|title=Stevie Nicks' Magic Act|last=White|first=Timothy|date=September 3, 1981|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US|access-date=March 21, 2020}} a waitress at Clementine's{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/stevie-nicks-a-rock-goddess-looks-back-179984/|title=Stevie Nicks: A Rock Goddess Looks Back|last=Hiatt|first=Brian|date=January 29, 2015|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US|access-date=March 21, 2020}}{{Cite book|last=Egan|first=Sean|title=Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters|publisher=Chicago Review Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1613732373|location=Chicago|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/entertainment/music/stevie-nicks-life-stories-68023|title=Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks: How, Against All Odds, She's Still Rocking|date=May 28, 2015|website=Marie Claire|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2020}} and as a cleaning lady for her record producer, Keith Olsen,{{Cite web|url=http://stevienicksfanfare.50webs.com/biography.htm|title=Biography|website=Stevie Nicks Fanfare|access-date=March 21, 2020}} so as to support herself and Buckingham financially;{{Cite magazine|last=Goodman|first=Wendy|date=November 1997|title=A Trip to Stevieland|url=http://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/FMart26.htm|magazine=Harper's Bazaar|access-date=March 21, 2020}} they had decided that it would be best for him not to work and to instead focus on honing his guitar technique.{{Cite web|url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/fleetwood-mac-everybody-was-pretty-weirded-out-the-story-of-rumours-26395/|title=Fleetwood Mac: 'Everybody was pretty weirded out' – the story of Rumours|date=January 29, 2013|website=UNCUT|language=en-GB|access-date=March 21, 2020}}

Recording sessions for Buckingham Nicks took place at Sound City Studios. Olsen took the opportunity to purchase a large Neve console for the facility, as he owned part of the studio at the time. "Crying in the Night", the opening song on Buckingham Nicks, was the first song recorded on the device.{{cite book|title=Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album|last=Howe|first=Zoë|page=28|year=2015|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-1-4683-1066-5|url=https://archive.org/details/stevienicksvisio0000howe/page/28/mode/2up}} Various session musicians, including drummer Jim Keltner and guitarist Waddy Wachtel, assisted in recording the album. Olsen facilitated the arrangement between Buckingham, Nicks, and Wachtel, and the three became "very tight".{{Cite web|url=http://waddywachtelinfo.com/WaddyWachtelInterviewPart1.html|title=2001 - 2003 Interview of Waddy Wachtel by Blackcat (Part 1)|website=Waddy Wachtel|access-date=March 21, 2020}} Nicks discusses this series of events in an interview with The Island Ear in 1994:

{{quote|We had some great demos. We shopped around. Over a period of time we got a deal with Polydor and made our first album, Buckingham Nicks. We had a taste of the big time. We had great musicians in a big, grand studio. We were happening. Things were going our way. But up until that point I had been thinking of quitting it all and going back to school because I was sick of being miserable and I hate being poor.}}

Buckingham performed two guitar instrumentals on the album: "Django" and "Stephanie". "Django" was written by pianist John Lewis in the 1950s to honor jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. "Stephanie" was written by Buckingham as a love song for Nicks; she was born as Stephanie Lynn Nicks. Buckingham wrote the song in late 1971 or early 1972 while recovering from a bout of mononucleosis that forced him to play while lying flat on his back.{{cite book |title=Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks |last=Davis |first=Steven |date=2017 |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |pages=30–31 |isbn=9781250032904}}

In 1973, Nicks spent $111 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|111|1973}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{inflation-fn|US}}) on a white blouse{{cite web|url=http://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/2014/06/never-before-seen-buckingham-nicks.html|title=Never before seen Buckingham Nicks Album Cover outtake Photos @StevieNicks @Lndsybuckingham|date=June 27, 2014|website=Fleetwood Mac News|access-date=March 21, 2020}} for the cover shoot, but the photographer, Jimmy Wachtel, and Buckingham coerced Nicks to take her top off when shooting the cover.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/11/21/16683772/stevie-nicks-book-career-fleetwood-mac|title=Season of the Witch: The Enduring Power of Stevie Nicks|last=Zoladz|first=Lindsay|date=November 21, 2017|website=The Ringer|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2020}} Nicks later recounted:

{{quote|I was crying when we took that picture. And Lindsey was mad at me. He said, 'You know, you're just being a child. This is art.' And I'm going, 'This is not art. This is me taking a nude photograph with you, and I don't dig it.'}}

{{quote|I thought, 'Who are you? Don't you know me?' ... I couldn't breathe. But I did it because I felt like a rat in a trap.{{cite web|url=http://wmmr.com/2013/12/03/stevie-nicks-recalls-going-nude-for-buckingham-nicks-album-cover/|title=Stevie Nicks Recalls Going Nude for 'Buckingham Nicks' Album Cover|date=2013-12-03|website=93.3 WMMR|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308231507/http://wmmr.com/2013/12/03/stevie-nicks-recalls-going-nude-for-buckingham-nicks-album-cover/|archive-date=8 March 2018|access-date=8 March 2018}}}}

Despite their efforts, Buckingham Nicks was virtually ignored by the promotional staff at Polydor Records. Nicks commented that she "couldn't even find our album in the record shops, let alone hear it on the radio." Thanks, however, to airplay by several Birmingham, Alabama disc jockeys, the album got well-received exposure during the WJLN-FM{{Cite web|url=https://www.al.com/life-and-culture/erry-2018/09/da850ca1cf6155/45-years-later-buckingham-nick.html|title=45 years later Buckingham Nicks album still casts spell|last=Wake|first=Matt|date=October 25, 2018|website=AL.com|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2020}} progressive rock evening hours, and the duo managed to cultivate a relatively small and concentrated fan base in that market. Elsewhere in the country, the album did not prove to be commercially successful and was soon deleted from the label's catalog. Disheartened, Nicks and Buckingham would spend much of the rest of 1973 continuing to work outside of the music industry to pay rent, with manager Martin Pichinson releasing them from their management contract.

However, shortly after the album's release, Mick Fleetwood, while evaluating recording studios, heard "Frozen Love" played back through studio monitors at Sound City by Keith Olsen.{{Cite episode|title=Episode 6|series=Old Grey Whistle Test 40|date=2011|season=1|number=6|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014gk5x|access-date=March 21, 2020|station=BBC}} Fleetwood would go on to invite the duo to join his band, Fleetwood Mac, on New Year's Eve 1974. Later, Buckingham met with Fleetwood and Christine and John McVie at the Mexican restaurant El Carmen, with Nicks later joining the group after her waitress shift at Clementine's, still wearing her flapper costume.{{Cite news|last=Jonze|first=Tim|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/12/fleetwood-mac-stevie-nicks-christine-mcvie-nuns|title=Fleetwood Mac's Stevie and Christine: 'We were like rock'n'roll nuns'|date=December 12, 2013|work=The Guardian|access-date=March 21, 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite book|last=Davis|first=Stephen|title=Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1250032904|location=New York|language=en}}

Buckingham Nicks toured that year in the American South to promote Buckingham Nicks. Bootlegged recordings from two concerts in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama have surfaced on the internet. These tours featured performances of "Rhiannon", "Blue Letter", and "Monday Morning" which would all appear on the Fleetwood Mac album, along with "I Don't Want to Know" which later appeared on Rumours. They also performed "Sorcerer" and songs from the Buckingham Nicks album.

The touring band consisted of bassist Tom Moncrieff, who later played bass on Nicks' first solo album Bella Donna, and drummer Gary "Hoppy" Hodges, who played drums on the album. Waddy Wachtel also toured with the band.

Moncrieff and Hodges later formed the band Sinai 48 with a new singer-songwriter duo in 2006, marking the first reunion of any Buckingham Nicks members aside from the continued collaboration of Buckingham and Nicks.

Despite the international success that Nicks and Buckingham later achieved, Buckingham Nicks has never been officially released on CD. It has since been widely bootlegged, including one bootleg copy titled Buckingham Nicks: Deluxe Edition from South Korea.{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Buckingham-Nicks-Buckingham-Nicks/release/10010259|title=Buckingham Nicks - Buckingham Nicks|website=Discogs|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2020}}

This version adds 12 extra tracks which were all recorded by Buckingham Nicks at around the same period as the Buckingham Nicks album, but were not included on the album. A copy of this album allegedly sourced from the master tapes (as opposed to a copy taken from vinyl) has also surfaced online.{{Cite web |title=Buckingham Nicks (Master-Tape Version) - YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsSYJv_OM4L1eYVOESUliCmjZv5uOXEgG |access-date=February 1, 2023 |website=www.youtube.com}}

Two of the album's ten songs have been issued on CD: "Long Distance Winner" was released as part of Nicks' Enchanted box set; and "Stephanie" turned up on a promotional-only CD release by Buckingham entitled Words and Music (A Retrospective), although this was from a vinyl transfer as well. Another song from the album, "Crystal", was recorded by the revamped Fleetwood Mac for the group's 1975 breakthrough LP, Fleetwood Mac, and was also recorded by Nicks herself for the soundtrack to the 1998 film Practical Magic. "Don't Let Me Down Again" was recorded by Fleetwood Mac for their 1980 live album, as it was performed several times on tour to support the Fleetwood Mac album, along with "Frozen Love". Additionally, Buckingham performed "Stephanie" on his One Man Show tour in 2012. "Stephanie" is also featured on the accompanying live album, One Man Show. Nicks performed "Crying in the Night" for the first time since 1973 on her 24 Karat Gold tour in 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/01/30/581051653/how-the-elusive-buckingham-nicks-established-stevie-nicks-songwriting-voice|title=How The Elusive 'Buckingham Nicks' Established Stevie Nicks' Songwriting Voice|last=Courogen|first=Carrie|date=January 30, 2018|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=March 21, 2020}}

In an interview on WRLT 100.1 Nashville from September 11, 2006, Buckingham expressed interest in seeing the album released on CD. He also suggested the possibility of a future joint Lindsey Buckingham-Stevie Nicks tour in the next few years to support the prospective re-release. Backing musicians Moncrieff and Hodges have also expressed interest in reuniting with Buckingham and Nicks for a future tour.

In an interview with NME in August 2011, Lindsey Buckingham reiterated his interest in giving the album an official CD release. Regarding the long wait, he stated: "It's been a victim of inertia. We have every intention of putting that album back out and possibly even doing something along with it."{{Cite web|url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/news/lindsey-buckingham-fleetwood-mac-will-be-back-next-year-40187/|title=Lindsey Buckingham: 'Fleetwood Mac will be back next year'|date=August 31, 2011|website=UNCUT|language=en-GB|access-date=March 21, 2020}} In December 2012, Nicks was hopeful that a 40th anniversary edition of Buckingham Nicks would be released in 2013, claiming that at least one unreleased song from the sessions could be included on the release.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2012-dec-04-la-et-ms-stevie-nicks-dishes-on-new-and-old-work-with-lindsey-buckingham-20121204-story.html|title=Stevie Nicks dishes on new and old work with Lindsey Buckingham|last=Roberts|first=Randall|date=December 4, 2012|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=March 21, 2020}}

In a December 2012 interview with CBS Local,{{Cite web|url=http://kearth101.cbslocal.com/2012/12/06/lindsey-buckingham-talks-buckinghamnicks-reissue-i-would-say-yes/|title=Lindsey Buckingham Talks Buckingham/Nicks Reissue: 'I Would Say Yes'|last=Ives|first=Brian|date=December 6, 2012|website=K-EARTH 101|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922063304/http://kearth101.cbslocal.com/2012/12/06/lindsey-buckingham-talks-buckinghamnicks-reissue-i-would-say-yes/|archive-date=September 22, 2015}} Buckingham talks about the possibility of an official CD release in 2013:

Stevie and I have been hanging out a little bit lately, and we've been talking about that. I think that's something that would happen this year as well. Oddly enough, I hate to even say it, I think the 40th anniversary of that is next year. Jeez! Is that possible? So we've been talking about it. Of course, we've been talking about it off and on for a long time, but Stevie seems really into the idea. So yes, I would say yes.

On April 30, 2013, Fleetwood Mac, with Buckingham and Nicks, released Extended Play, their first new studio material since 2003's Say You Will via digital download on the iTunes Store with the four-track EP containing three new songs and one song from the Buckingham Nicks sessions ("Without You") which was a "lost" demo written during the Buckingham Nicks era, which Nicks herself had found posted on YouTube.{{Cite web|url=http://exclaim.ca/music/article/fleetwood_mac_return_with_new_material_on_extended_play|title=Fleetwood Mac Return with New Material on 'Extended Play'|last=Hudson|first=Alex|date=April 30, 2013|website=Exclaim.ca|language=en-ca|access-date=March 21, 2020}}

In 2024, Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham covered the full album and released it under the name "Cunningham Bird".{{Cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2024/10/18/cunningham-bird-takes-flight-breathing-new-life-into-buckingham-nicks/|title="Cunningham Bird" takes flight: Breathing new life into "Buckingham Nicks"|last=Womack|first= Kenneth|website=salon.com|language=en-us|access-date=October 25, 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.covermesongs.com/tag/madison-cunningham|title=Review: Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham's "Cunningham Bird'|last=Og|first=Seuras|website=covermesongs.com|language=en-us|access-date=October 25, 2024}}

{{tracklist

| headline = Side one

| extra_column = Lead vocals

| title1 = Crying in the Night

| length1 = 2:58

| writer1 = Stevie Nicks

| extra1 = Nicks

| title2 = Stephanie

| length2 = 2:12

| writer2 = Lindsey Buckingham{{refn|group=nb|The album notes list each individual composition credit above the lyrics for each song. Because "Stephanie" is an instrumental, Buckingham did not officially receive a credit for the song on releases.Buckingham Nicks (album). Buckingham Nicks. New York, New York: Polydor Incorporated. 1973. PD 5058

}}

| extra2 = instrumental

| title3 = Without a Leg to Stand On

| length3 = 2:09

| extra3 = Buckingham

| writer3 = Buckingham

| title4 = Crystal

| length4 = 3:41

| extra4 = Buckingham

| writer4 = Nicks

| title5 = Long Distance Winner

| extra5 = Nicks

| writer5 = Nicks

| length5 = 4:50

}}

{{tracklist

| headline = Side two

| extra_column = Lead vocals

| title1 = Don't Let Me Down Again

| length1 = 3:52

| writer1 = Buckingham

| extra1 = Buckingham

| title2 = Django

| length2 = 1:02

| writer2 = John Lewis

| extra2 = instrumental

| title3 = Races Are Run

| length3 = 4:14

| extra3 = Nicks

| writer3 = Nicks

| title4 = Lola (My Love)

| length4 = 3:44

| extra4 = Buckingham

| writer4 = Buckingham

| title5 = Frozen Love

| length5 = 7:16

| writer5 = {{hlist|Nicks|Buckingham}}

| extra5 = {{hlist|Nicks|Buckingham}}

| total_length = 35:58

}}

Main performers

• Lindsey Buckingham – vocals, guitars, bass guitar, percussion
• Stevie Nicks – vocals{{refn|group=nb|Credited as "Stevi Nicks" on the original LP release.}}

Additional personnel

• Waddy Wachtel – guitars
• Jerry Scheff – bass guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass guitar
• Peggy Sandvig – keyboards{{refn|group=nb|Credited as "Peggy Sandvic" on the original LP release.}}

• Monty Stark – synthesizer
• Richard Halligan – string arrangement
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Ron Tutt – drums
• Gary "Hoppy" Hodges – drums, percussion
• Jorge Calderón – percussion

Production

• Keith Olsen – producer, engineer
• Lee Lasseff – executive producer
• Richard Dashut – assistant engineer
• Jimmy Wachtel – album design, photography

{{Reflist}}

{{reflist|1|group=nb}}

• [http://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/archive/BNart001.html Buckingham Nicks Interview (February 1975)]
• [http://waddywachtelinfo.com/BuckinghamNicks.html Buckingham Nicks]
• [http://artistconnectionpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-118-gary-hodges 2013 Gary "Hoppy" Hodges interview on Artist Connection Podcast]

{{Lindsey Buckingham}}

{{Stevie Nicks}}

{{Fleetwood Mac}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1973 debut albums

Category:Albums produced by Keith Olsen

Category:Albums recorded at Sound City Studios

Category:Albums with cover art by Jimmy Wachtel

Category:Lindsey Buckingham albums

Category:Polydor Records albums

Category:Stevie Nicks albums

Category:Vocal duet albums