The Stevie Nicks song that was “lost for 30 years”
Ask most people to pick their favourite member of Fleetwood Mac, and they’ll probably say Stevie Nicks. Her voice, style, and poetic lyricism are all huge contributors to her legacy, and without her, it’s safe to say that Fleetwood Mac probably wouldn’t be nearly as iconic as they are today.
It’s because Nicks inherently speaks to the unconventional spirit in all of us. For the witchy types, she represents unapologetically being yourself and owning your vibe. For music lovers, her songs accrue everything that’s to love about pop melodies, with all the edges and flavour of rock. And for everyone else – there’s always something to relate to within her lyrical escapades about heartbreak, love, anger, and redefining yourself.
Rumours is arguably the defining Fleetwood Mac album. Released in 1977, it is home to hits like ‘Dreams’, ‘The Chain’, ‘Go Your Own Way’, and ‘Songbird’. Each song on the album resonates so perfectly that it’s hard to imagine any additional inclusion. Yet, amid this collection, there lies a hidden gem: one that was not only left out but forgotten about entirely until it was brought to light one day when Nicks was piecing together works for her seventh studio album, In Your Dreams, in 2011.
Nicks originally wrote ‘Secret Love’ in 1976. She recorded a demo and intended for it to be a part of Rumours, but it didn’t make the cut – some 30 years later, she rediscovered the track and played it to her producers Glen Ballard and Dave Stewart. “I pulled songs from 1976 that I don’t know why in the world did not go in the first Fleetwood Mac album,” Nicks told The Ventura County Star. “I must’ve misplaced the cassette. I had one of my backup singers, my sister-in-law Lori, go to Phoenix and the storage vault where all of our old cassettes are. […] It’s kind of been lost for 30 years.”
2011 was an interesting year for Nicks. A few months prior to releasing In Your Dreams, she had completed her “It’s not really a tour” tour, with one show benefitting a young girl she had met through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The day that she released In Your Dreams, FOX Network broadcasted the Glee episode ‘Rumours’, sparking renewed interest in the band and its iconic album, causing it to re-enter the Billboard 200 chart at number 11, at the same time In Your Dreams debuted at number six.
At the time, Nicks called the album “my own little Rumours”. ‘Secret Love’ is nothing short of a testament to just that – boasted effortlessly by her beautiful vocalisation, the song talks about finding solace in a love you know is doomed to end. Perhaps what makes it so resonant is the fact that you can tell this is Nicks during her Rumours era: the song is equal parts energetic as it is laid-back as she pleads: “I’m not asking forever from you / I’m just asking to be held for a while.”
Equally, the music video is a homage to the very essence of Nicks, capturing everything we love about her and her artistry. Nicks, Stewart, and Mick Fleetwood perform in her Los Angeles house and backyard while her goddaughter, Kelly, wears a vintage dress that she wore in 1976. Nicks also wears at least three different dresses, including her signature ‘Rhiannon’ black chiffon dress and top hat while swinging a baton.
The demo for ‘Secret Love’ had been circulating among fans for many years prior to its inclusion on In Your Dreams, but the album brought widespread attention to it, debuting at its peak on the US Billboard charts at number 20. Time and circumstance is an interesting concept for Nicks’ legacy, as it’s interesting to imagine a world where ‘Secret Love’ made it onto Rumours. Maybe we’d be sitting here now, discussing how it reached number one and solidified itself as a Fleetwood Mac classic.
But mere speculation doesn’t matter because we’re lucky to have been gifted the song at all, considering the fact it was hidden away all those years – lost in the darkness of long-forgotten cassette tapes.
