Christine McVie

I am interrupting my present series to celebrate the life and music of Christine McVie, whose death at 79 was announced today. She was one of my musical heroes. Her singing on ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ was seminal in introducing me to the blues. This is my tribute to her.

Christine McVie (nee Perfect) was an English musician, vocalist and keyboardist. She was born in the village of Bouth, Lancashire, and grew up in Smethwick. Her father, Cyril Perfect, was a concert violinist and music lecturer. Her mother, Beatrice Perfect, was a medium, psychic, and faith healer. Although McVie was introduced to the piano when she was four, she did not study music seriously until the age of 11, when she was reintroduced to it by Philip Fisher, a local musician and school friend of McVie’s elder brother, John. Continuing her classical training until age 15, McVie shifted her musical focus to rock and roll when her brother, John, came home with a Fats Domino songbook.

McVie studied sculpture at Moseley School of Art in Birmingham for five years, with the goal of becoming an art teacher. During that time, she met a number of budding musicians in Britain’s blues scene. Her first foray into the music field came when she met two friends, Stan Webb and Andy Silvester, who were in a band called Sounds Of Blue. Knowing that McVie had musical talent, they asked her to join. She often sang with Spencer Davis. By the time McVie graduated from art college, Sounds of Blue had split up, and because she did not have enough money to launch herself into the art world, she moved to London and worked briefly as a department-store window dresser.

In 1967, McVie learned that her ex-bandmates, Andy Silvester and Stan Webb, were forming a blues band, Chicken Shack, and were looking for a pianist. She wrote to them asking to join. They accepted and invited her to play keyboards/piano and to sing background vocals. Chicken Shack’s debut release was “It’s Okay With Me Baby”, written by and featuring McVie. She stayed with Chicken Shack for two albums, during which her genuine feel for the blues became evident, not only in her Sonny Thompson-style piano playing, but also through her authentic “bluesy” voice. Chicken Shack had a hit with “I’d Rather Go Blind”, which featured McVie on lead vocals. McVie received a Meoldy Maker award for female vocalist in both 1969 and 1970. McVie left Chicken Shack in 1969 after marrying Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie a year earlier.

McVie was a fan of Fleetwood Mac, and while touring with Chicken Shack, the two bands would often meet. They also were both signed to Blue Horizon, and Fleetwood Mac had asked her to play piano as a session musician for Peter Green’s songs on the band’s second album, Mr. Wonderful. Encouraged to continue her career, McVie recorded a solo album, Christine Perfect; following her success as a member of Fleetwood Mac, the album was reissued under the name The Legendary Christine Perfect Album. After marrying John McVie, she joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970. She had already contributed backup vocals and painted the cover for Kiln House. The band had just lost founding member Peter Green, and its members were nervous about touring without him. McVie had been a huge fan of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, and since she knew all the lyrics to their songs, she went along.

In 1974, McVie reluctantly agreed to move with the rest of Fleetwood Mac to the United States. Within a year, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, giving it an added dimension. Their first album together, 1975’s ‘Fleetwood Mac’, had several hit songs, with McVie’s “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me”, both reaching Billboard’s top-20 singles chart. “Over My Head” put Fleetwood Mac on American radio and into the national top 20.

In 1976, McVie began an on-the-road affair with the band’s lighting director, which inspired her to write “You Make Loving Fun”, a top-10 hit on the landmark smash Rumours, one of the best-selling albums of all time. Her biggest hit was “Don’t Stop”, which reached number three. The Rumours tour also included McVie’s “Songbird”, a ballad played as the encore of many Fleetwood Mac concerts.

By the end of the Rumours tour, the McVies were divorced. The 1979 double album Tusk produced three more US top-20 hits (“Tusk”, “Sara”, and Christine’s “Think About Me”), but it came nowhere near to matching the success of the Rumours album. The Tusk tour continued into 1980, after which the band took time apart. They reunited in 1981 to record the album Mirage in France. The album, released in 1982, returned the band to the top of the US charts and contained the top-five hit “Hold Me”, co-written by McVie. McVie’s inspiration for the song was her tortured relationship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. Her song, “Love in Store”, became the third single from the album peaking at number 22 in early 1983. Recorded in 1984, her second solo album, Christine McVie, included the hits “Got a Hold on Me” and “Love Will Show Us How” McVie is quoted in as saying of her solo album, “Maybe it isn’t the most adventurous album in the world, but I wanted to be honest and please my own ears with it.

McVie also met keyboardist Eddy Quintela and married him in October 1986. Quintela went on to co-write many songs with her that were featured on subsequent Fleetwood Mac albums. She rejoined Fleetwood Mac to record the Tango in the Night album, which went on to become the band’s biggest success since Rumours 10 years earlier. The biggest hit from the album, which was top five in both the UK and U.S., was McVie’s “Little Lies”, co-written with Quintela. Another McVie single from the album, “Everywhere”, reached number four in the UK, which would be the band’s third-highest ever chart peak there, and their final top-40 UK hit to date.

In 1998, McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The same year, after almost 30 years with the band, she opted to leave and lived in semi-retirement for nearly 15 years. She released a solo album in 2004. In September 2013 she appeared on stage with Fleetwood Mac at the O2 Arena in London, before rejoining the band in 2014 prior to their On with the Show tour. In 2006, McVie received a Gold Badge of Merit Award from Basca, now. In 2014, she received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement. She was also the recipient of two Grammy Awards.

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