Since its first release in 1975, Stevie Nicks’s popular song “Landslide” has continued to have an effect on its audience.
The singer for Fleetwood Mac will be celebrating her 75th birthday on May 26. She has already developed a career that is founded on the compelling songwriting she has done both as a solo artist and as a member of the band Fleetwood Mac.
It is generally agreed upon that Nicks’ smash single “Landslide” from 1975, which was included for the first time on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album released the same year, is one of the most important works she has ever produced. This song was initially included on the album in the same year.
Nicks’ rendition of “Landslide” in 1975 reached number one on a number of lists, including the Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary Top 10. It was ranked number 163 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in the year 2021.
Since the Smashing Pumpkins’ version of “Landslide” in 1994 and the Dixie Chicks’ interpretation of the song in 2002, which topped the country charts, the song has been covered by a broad variety of performers performing in a wide variety of musical styles.
Nicks was a singer for Fleetwood Mac when she joined the band in the 1970s, but her influence on the music industry has influenced a new generation of contemporary hit-makers in the years since then. In 2018, Stevie Nicks was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year, and Miley Cyrus gave a memorable performance of a rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” at the event to pay tribute to Nicks and the band. Since then, a number of musicians, including Harry Styles, Haim, and Taylor Swift, have voiced their respect for Nicks as a renowned vocalist.
Continue reading to find out more about the real-life events that inspired the song “Landslide.”
Even though “Landslide” was included on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album back in 1975, Nicks is the only one who is given credit for writing the song. Lindsey Buckingham, a member of Stevie Nicks’ band and her boyfriend at the time, contributed some overdubs and a solo to the studio version of the song; nonetheless, Nicks is solely responsible for the composition of the song.
Nicks first out her musical career as a member of a folk-rock duet with Buckingham, who was her boyfriend at the time, until she joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. At the time, the band was made up of just Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and John McVie.
In 1973, the duo became recording artists after signing a contract with Polydor Records. Buckingham Nicks was the name of their self-titled first album, which was released in 1973. However, the venture was not a financial success, and as a result, both of the artists were dismissed from their contract with the record company.
Nicks took up different occupations after the release of an album that was not successful commercially, but she never stopped making music or writing songs. During this time, Buckingham received an invitation to join the Everly Brothers on tour to play guitar.
It wasn’t until Fleetwood, who was the drummer and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, was looking for a replacement vocalist-guitarist that he contacted Buckingham about joining his rock band. Buckingham accepted the offer. Buckingham, upon formally joining the band, made it quite clear that he and Nicks were to be considered a single unit.
In 1975, Fleetwood Mac released Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide,” which was included on their second self-titled album (the first with Nicks and Buckingham as members of the band). This song was one of the primary factors that contributed to Fleetwood Mac being one of the band’s best albums of all time.
During the 1973 tour stop in Aspen, Colorado, Nicks went there with Buckingham. The Everly Brothers were performing there at the time. The song “Landslide” was written during a time when she was experiencing emotions of dissatisfaction professionally and her relationship with Buckingham was progressively disintegrating.
The first lines of the song are as follows: “I took my love, I took it down / I climbed a mountain and I turned around.”
According to an interview that Nicks gave to the New York Times, she penned the song “Landslide” in 1973, when she was 27 years old. Nicks shared her thoughts with the publication, saying, “I did already feel old in a lot of ways.” “For years, I had been supporting myself by working as a server and as a cleaning woman. I was worn out. ”
Nicks, who has said that she created the song in around five minutes while staring out her snowy window at the Aspen mountains, penned the lyrics “And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills / Til the landslide brought me down.” Nicks has claimed that she wrote the song while looking at the Aspen highlands.
In addition to her connection with Buckingham, the lyrics continue to investigate the ideas that Nicks was having at that precarious moment in her professional life. She drew parallels between the dangers of an avalanche in the mountains and the difficulties she is facing in her own image right now.
The chorus of the song contains the words, “And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills / Until the landslide brought me down,” which may be found at the beginning of this sentence.
Stevie Nicks: The Timeless Goddess of Rock Turns 75 is a special-edition bookazine published by PEOPLE and available for purchase today. In this bookazine, you can look back on Nicks’ extraordinary career and celebrate her legacy. You can also see some of the contemporary music giants who cite her as an inspiration.
