Key Takeaways

• Creative Peak: Fleetwood Mac’s classic period marked a significant creative peak for the band.
• Steady Lineup: The addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks solidified the band’s lineup during this era.
• Extensive Catalog: The ranking includes over 75 tracks from the classic era, showcasing their extensive catalog.
• Notable Exclusions: The list does not feature early demos or live albums that lack Christine McVie.

Fleetwood Mac’s classic period was more than a commercial juggernaut that led to one of the biggest-selling records of all time. It was also an era marked by the veteran group’s creative peak. With the additions of Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, the British band settled on a steady lineup, after a half-decade of consistent turnover, with its 10th album.

From 1975-87, the lineup of singer, songwriter and guitarist Buckingham, singer and songwriter Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood, singer, songwriter and keyboardist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie recorded five albums, as well as a handful of B-sides, outtakes and stray cuts that ended up on other records before and after their time together.

The below ranking of every classic-era Fleetwood Mac song includes more than 75 tracks from those key years. It doesn’t contain any of the works-in-progress or early demos of released songs found on expanded versions of the band’s five studio records. It also doesn’t include the 1997 live reunion album The Dance or the 2003 LP Say You Will and 2013’s Extended Play, neither of which included Christine McVie.

78. “Kiss and Run” (From Expanded Version of Tusk, 2004)

This pointless jam of an obscure cover from the Tusk sessions ended up on a later reissue. This is the sort of thing the band was trying to leave behind in the mid-’70s.

77. “Book of Miracles” (From “Seven Wonders” B-side, 1987)

An instrumental that laid the basis for the song “Juliet” on Nicks’ 1989 solo album The Other Side of the Mirror, “Book of Miracles” never gets out of the demo stage.

76. “One More Night” (From Fleetwood Mac Live, 1980)

Three new songs were added to the concert souvenir Fleetwood Mac Live album in 1980. This was Christine McVie’s. It sounds unfinished and rushed.

75. “Farmer’s Daughter” (From Fleetwood Mac Live, 1980)

A 1963 Beach Boys song recorded during the Tusk sessions, “Farmer’s Daughter” appeared on 1980’s Live with added audience. A slight, and rare, cover by the lineup.

74. “Cool Water” (From “Gypsy” B-Side, 1982)

Only Buckingham and John McVie (on backing vocals) are on this cover of the late-’30s cowboy tune gracing “Gypsy”‘s flip side. Disposable.

73. “Teen Beat” (From 25 Years: The Chain, 1992)

Another Mirage outtake, the Buckingham instrumental “Teen Beat” stayed unreleased for a decade before it showed up on The Chain box set. More sketch than a song.

72. “Goodbye Angel” (From 25 Years: The Chain, 1992)

Left off Mirage, Buckingham’s “Goodbye Angel” warms up nostalgia with solo-career tricks: doo-wop via a DIY path, if you will. Finally surfaced on a 1992 Mac box set.

71. “Sugar Daddy” (From Fleetwood Mac, 1975)

Christine McVie’s “Sugar Daddy” is such a throwaway song by the group that nobody put much effort into it. Never played live either.

70. “Straight Back” (From Mirage, 1982)

A Nicks song about her solo career that sounds like a leftover from her first solo album. The rest of the band does little here than provide session backup.

69. “You and I, Part II” (From Tango in the Night, 1987)

Part one is on the “Big Love” single B-side and features only Buckingham; Christine McVie joins for the album version. Stitched together as one track for a later reissue.

68. “When I See You Again” (From Tango in the Night, 1987)

The second-to-last song in Tango in the Night, this tender acoustic ballad from Nicks (with backing vocals by Buckingham) doesn’t do or say much. Pretty thin.

67. “Welcome to the Room … Sara” (From Tango in the Night, 1987)

Nicks spent time recovering from addiction at the Betty Ford Clinic before making Tango in the Night. This song – complete with a callback to her earlier “Sara” – details her stay.