‘Raspberry Beret’: Christine McVie’s favourite Prince song
Fleetwood Mac are the songwriters behind countless people’s favourite songs. Led by their namesake Mick Fleetwood, the soft rockers spent the 1970s channeling the chaos of their personal lives into innumerable all-time greats, from the subtle sways of ‘Dreams’ to the enduringly iconic ‘The Chain’. An essential element in their stellar songwriting was the talented Christine McVie.
McVie had made small contributions to Fleetwood Mac’s activity in its early days, supporting her husband John McVie, but her official entry into the band came in 1971 with the release of Future Games. Contributing her unique piano playing style, emotive vocals, and songwriting prowess to the band, she gave their sound a new depth.
With the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham not too long after, Fleetwood Mac had obtained the lineup that would create some of the greatest songs of all time. McVie penned several of them alone, including the achingly beautiful ‘Songbird’ and the optimistic ‘Don’t Stop’, both of which would feature on their magnum opus, Rumours, in 1977.
At the same time, a mononymous musician named Prince was carving out his own place in rock history. Far from the soft rock stylings of McVie and her bandmates, the so-called ‘Purple One’ forged compositions that combined psychedelia, soaring vocals, and funk into something entirely different. He was an artist in the purest sense of the word, producing his own albums and allowing his artistry to bleed into his style beyond the sonic form.
Like Fleetwood Mac, Prince penned many pieces that would be considered among the best of the best. From the undeniable groove of ‘Kiss’ to the zest for life contained in ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, Prince’s catalogue is full of compositions worthy of a place on the list of your favourite songs, but McVie managed to narrow it down to just one.
Though they were making markedly different music, Prince attracted the admiration of the keyboardist with his 1985 work, ‘Raspberry Beret’. McVie shared her love for the track while selecting her favourite songs during an interview with BBC Radio 2, amidst picks from the likes of David Bowie, The Beach Boys and even Fleetwood Mac themselves.
Following on from the release of Purple Rain a year earlier, ‘Raspberry Beret’ had big shoes to fill. While the singles for the previous album had been rich with funk influences, impressive vocalisations and killer riffs, ‘Raspberry Beret’ felt a little more understated. Over strings and swaying percussion, he tells the tale of a girl who dons a raspberry-coloured beret. “I think I love her,” he sings earnestly.
His lyrics flit between playful and honest as he details his subject, her bright secondhand beret, and his love for them both. “If it was warm, she wouldn’t wear much more,” he jokes. Simple, sweet, and occasionally sultry while maintaining all the charm and charisma of any other entry into Prince’s catalogue, it’s easy to see why the track endeared itself to McVie and found its way into her top picks.
McVie isn’t the only one who was taken in by the track. Almost four decades on, it still remains one of the most well-known and well-loved pieces he ever released, likely taking the title for thousands of other people’s favourite Prince song.
