Rhiannon (song)

"Rhiannon"
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Fleetwood Mac
B-side "Sugar Daddy"
Released
  • February 4, 1976 (US)
  • April 1976 (UK)
  • February 1978 (UK re-issue)
Format 7" 45 RPM
Recorded February 1975
Genre Rock,[1] soft rock[2]
Length 4:12 (album version)
3:46 (single version)
4:09 (alternate versions)
Label Reprise
Writer(s) Stevie Nicks
Producer(s) Fleetwood Mac and Keith Olsen
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"Over My Head"
(1975 US / 1976 UK)
"Rhiannon"
(1976)
"Say You Love Me"
(1976)

"Rhiannon" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and originally recorded by Fleetwood Mac. First released on their eponymous album in 1975, it was subsequently issued as a single the following year.

"Rhiannon" was voted #488 in The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. Its US chart peak was in June 1976, when it hit #11.[3] It peaked at #46 in the UK singles chart for three weeks after re-release in February 1978.[4]

The song is always referred to as simply "Rhiannon" on Fleetwood Mac albums. The suffixed title "Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)" was used only on singles in certain territories.

Live performances of the song were sometimes prefaced with Nicks saying, "This is a song about an old Welsh witch." During 1975–1980, Fleetwood Mac's live performances of "Rhiannon" took on a theatrical intensity not present on the FM-radio single. The song built to a climax in which Nicks' vocals were so impassioned that, as drummer and band co-founder Mick Fleetwood said, "her Rhiannon in those days was like an exorcism."[5]

Background

Nicks discovered Rhiannon in the early 70's through a novel called Triad, by Mary Bartlet Leader. The novel is about a woman named Branwen, who is possessed by another woman named Rhiannon. There is mention of the Welsh legend of Rhiannon in the novel, but the characters in the novel bear little resemblance to their original Welsh namesakes (both Rhiannon and Branwen are major female characters in the medieval Welsh prose tales of the Mabinogion).[6]

Nicks bought the novel in an airport just before a long flight and thought the name was so pretty that she wanted to write something about a girl named Rhiannon. She wrote "Rhiannon" in 1974, three months before joining Fleetwood Mac, while living with Richard Dashut and Lindsey Buckingham in Malibu, and has claimed that it took 10 minutes to write.

After writing the song, Nicks learned that Rhiannon originated from a Welsh goddess, and was amazed that the haunting song lyrics applied to the Welsh Rhiannon as well. Nicks researched the Mabinogion story and began work on a Rhiannon project, unsure of whether it would become a movie, a musical, a cartoon, or a ballet. There are several "Rhiannon Songs" from this unfinished project including "Stay Away" and "Maker of Birds." Nicks wrote the Fleetwood Mac song "Angel" based on the Rhiannon story.[6]

Personnel

Fleetwood Mac

Charts

Chart (1976) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 11
U.K Singles Chart 46
Australian Singles Chart 13
Canadian Singles Chart 4
Dutch Singles Chart 16
Italian Singles Chart 15

Covers

Appearances in other media

References

  1. "ACM Awards: Lady Antebellum, Stevie Nicks Rock 'Golden' Performance". Billboard. 6 April 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  2. Fontenot, Robert. "Oldies Music Encyclopedia: "Soft Rock"". About.com. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  3. Rock Movers & Shakers by Dafydd Rees & Luke Crampton, 1991 Billboard Books.
  4. The Great Rock Discography. Martin C.Strong.. Page 378. ISBN 1-84195-312-1
  5. Stevie Nicks - Behind the Music
  6. 1 2 "Stevie Nicks on Rhiannon". inherownwords. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  7. Glen Cook aux Utopiales 2011 : l'interview - Elbakin.net

External links

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