In October 2020, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours returned to the Billboard Top 200’s top ten for the first time 42 years.

This resurgence came thanks to @420doggface208 on Tiktok. His viral video includes him skateboarding and drinking from an Ocean Spray bottle of cranberry juice to the group’s hit song, “Dreams”. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the exact video described. You’ve probably even seen multiple remakes of this video – even one from LFHS’ Student Body President Will Elliott, and another by Mick Fleetwood himself. All three videos are attached, so you can decide for yourself who did it best.

All jokes aside, today Rumours remains at #43 on Billboard’s top 200, and currently sits at number 16 of Billboard’s 500 top albums of all time. Fleetwood Mac has become popular among the students at LFHS, and for good reason.

Yet in an album that is filled with so many successful individual songs, it’s almost impossible to go through the creation process without a few bumps in the road before reaching the desired end result. For Fleetwood Mac, however, these bumps were more like boulders. Nevertheless, the group persisted, and Rumours was born.

Let’s dive into the hardships faced by the band members, as well as some other uncommon tidbits from this period.

The recording of the album comes directly after the success of their self-titled album, including the songs “Over my Head”, “Say You Love Me”, and “Rhiannon”. There was lots of pressure to produce a bigger and better album, creating a tension-filled foundation for the record.

Now, onto the personal, yet not-so-private issues.

Enter Christine and John McVie – a vocalist/keyboardist and bass guitarist. The couple had been married for eight years and went into Rumours with an inevitable divorce looming.

Next up is Stevie Nicks, vocalist, and Lindsey Buckingham, guitarist, who broke things off right before the recording of the album.

And to top it off, leader of the band Mick Fleetwood had just found out that his wife had been having an affair with one of his close friends, foreshadowing a divorce in the near future.

While the McVie’s found a way to avoid contact as much as possible to eliminate arguments during the sessions, Nicks and Buckingham’s reactions were just a little different: they would often yell at each other across the studio until the very last second before the light turned on and the recording began.

And amidst all of the breakups, Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood sparked their relationship.

When looking into the words of the songs, it’s clear that the subject matter is directly aligned with the states of the band members’ relationships – the members weren’t ashamed to show the public what was going on behind the scenes. 

“Go Your Own Way” is Lindsey Buckingham’s reaction to the breakup between him and Nicks, while “Dreams” is Nicks’ side to the story. Nicks titled these two “twin songs” as they both talk about managing the turmoil from failing relationships with professional relationships.

“Don’t Stop” is Christine’s perspective on her new life, and “You Make Loving Fun” is about her relationship with someone other than ex-husband, John.

Lastly, “The Chain” is a holistic piece touching on the deception and dishonesty within the group.

After the album was completed, Christine explained to the Rolling Stone that “Rumours remains so powerful because it’s so ruthlessly clear-eyed about the crisis, instead of smoothing it over.” 

While the songs might be extremely honest about their situations, the members were hardly “clear-eyed” – the band was known for using copious amounts of cocaine to deal with the stress, and the band even considered thanking their dealer on the album.

Whatever methods that were used to cope with the personal issues in the midst of recording must’ve been successful, as the album has resurfaced after 42 years, and it doesn’t look like it will be leaving Billboard’s top 200 anytime soon.