Mick Fleetwood on the days when Fleetwood Mac outsold The Beatles: “Who cares?”
Most people know the name Fleetwood Mac from hits such as ‘Go Your Own Way’ and ‘Dreams’, tracks taken from the now-iconic record Rumours. The album is one of the most successful of all time and is widely considered their magnum opus. Its success was so eye-watering and emerged from a period of such immense strife that it remains one of the most storied of the period, with its fusion of rock and pop immensely influential.
A crossover success, Rumours opened up a lengthy future for Fleetwood Mac. They were able to assert their cultural relevance and metamorphose amid a changing zeitgeist as the punk movement swept up many of their contemporaries from the classic rock era. After the release of the 1977 hit, they were no longer just a floundering band of drug-addled hippies but a global commercial force.
Although the sparse 1979 follow-up Tusk remains a cult offering, the ensuing records in the 1980s saw them move with the times further. They moved deeper into a heady form of pop that would later evoke some of the most intense nostalgia for the period, with tracks such as ‘Seven Wonders’, ‘Little Lies’, and ‘Everywhere’.
Despite this extremely successful period, fans often forget that Fleetwood Mac had a long history before Rumours. Their origins lay in London’s fervent blues scene of the 1960s. This milieu laid the foundations for many of the decade’s most vital musical advancements, producing many heroes, from Eric Clapton to The Rolling Stones. Demonstrating just how winding their road is, the only original member in the group when they released 1987’s Tango in the Night was drummer Mick Fleetwood.
Present for all of the band’s oscillating career, Fleetwood was recruited by their founder, frontman, and guitarist Peter Green in 1967. During these early years, the group were deeply lodged in the world of blues as they had all cut their teeth in the scene, with Green replacing Clapton in John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers before he started his namesake outfit. He had also played in two previous bands with Fleetwood in Peter B’s Looners and Shotgun Express.
During this formative chapter, when the band put a distinctive spin on emotive blues, they achieved a UK number one with 1968’s instrumental ‘Albatross’, which was followed by other hits such as ‘Man of the World’ and ‘Oh Well’. With Green at the helm, this iteration of the group was one of the most prominent in Europe, which, according to Fleetwood, even saw them outsell The Beatles, the most successful band of all time.
Speaking to Paste in 2017, Fleetwood recalled the days when the band grew more financially successful than The Beatles. While he admitted it was a fleeting victory, this is a fascinating point given the commercial heights the group would reach years later. Even Christine McVie had yet to enter the fold during this early juncture.
Discussing whether it was strange that Fleetwood Mac became a global success half a decade after their founder departed in 1970, the drummer noted that people shouldn’t forget that their first album was a number-one hit, and they wrote it shortly after forming. He also explained that Green had previously experienced “huge success” with The Bluesbreakers.
Of course, their early success was “not on the level” of what came with Rumours and afterwards, but Fleetwood asserted that it is all relative. He explained: “In our world and his world, we went from nothing to the biggest band in our world, which was Europe.”
He continued: “The band was huge, and there was some joke—which I still think is a joke, but it actually was true—that there was a period where we were outselling The Beatles—which you go, ‘Well, who cares?’ It wasn’t true—well, it sort of actually is true, but probably for about five days or something. Whatever it was, Peter wasn’t devoid of his own realisation of huge success.”
While Fleetwood Mac’s story is one of the most compelling in music history, their drummer’s achievements are truly astounding. He is one of few living artists who can claim to have outsold The Beatles and had a decades-long career of largely unwavering success. Perhaps such a span is why he’s so blasé about besting John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
