The song Stevie Nicks said was too good for her to sing: “It’s amazing”
There were never any limitations on the kind of songs that Stevie Nicks sang.
There were bound to be a few tunes that didn’t resonate with people the same way they did with her, but it’s hard to think of anyone else bringing the same passion to a song like ‘Landslide’ or being able to hit some with the emotional bomb that ‘Silver Springs’ is whenever she plays it. But while she could get behind any song that had the right amount of emotion behind it, she had the good sense to realise when a handful of tunes were in a completely different class.
Because it’s not like Nicks was trying to be the biggest vocal diva whenever she sang or anything, she continues to have one of the most distinctive voices in all of rock and roll, but put her next to Mariah Carey, and it’s not like everyone is riding for her being one of the greatest of all time. She had complete control over her voice, and while that meant not reaching for those massive high notes, it didn’t matter when you could hear her going for it whenever she made her solo records.
But before she struck out on her own, she had to be weighing her options a little bit. Walking away from Fleetwood Mac was never going to be an easy decision, but even when she decided to move in a different direction, she always made sure that she was there for the band when she needed to be. And yet when she finally got her first hit, it would come through the help of one of her greatest inspirations.
She had already gone solo with the intention of making records that sounded as good as Tom Petty, but never would she have imagined that Petty would have contributed a song to one of her records, either. ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ was exactly the kind of song she was looking for to build her career upon, but when she first started working with Petty, he wasn’t really in that headspace. He felt someone like Nicks needed a beautiful ballad, but ‘Insider’ was a lot more than she bargained for.
Aside from it being a beautiful song, it’s also one of the best deep cuts that Petty would ever write. Even when paired next to any track off of Wildflowers, there’s no way of capturing this kind of energy again, and before Petty eventually took the song back, Nicks insisted that the track was too good for her to sing the lead vocal on it.
Most people would have been grateful to have a masterpiece like that be served to them on a silver platter, but Nicks felt bad taking that song away from her friend, with Petty recalling, “She walked back in and said, ‘How was it?’ I said, ‘It’s amazing,’ She said, ‘I can tell by the look on your face, you don’t wanna give me this song. I’m giving it back to you right now.’ I really thought a lot of her for that.”
That’s not to say that she couldn’t add her magic in certain spots. The version that turns up on Hard Promises is still a great Heartbreakers performance, but getting Nicks in to sing the backing vocals is one of the most beautiful features to turn up on one of his records, which probably explains why she was called back to sing backup for everything from ‘You Can Still Change Your Mind’ to ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’.
And, really, having her sing a tune like ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ ended up working out better for everyone in the end. Petty got his beautiful ballad back, and for all of the ridicule Nicks got for not being an authentic rock and roller, she at least had one fantastic song to her name to kickstart her career with.
