Fleetwood Mac‘s “Rumours” is one of the greatest albums of all time, spawning hits like “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” and “The Chain,” while selling over 40 million copies worldwide. But its creation is also one of the most notoriously dramatic and chaotic recording situations in rock history.
Before the album’s release, one song recorded during those sessions quietly slipped onto the B-side of the “Go Your Own Way” single. Decades later, it has become an unexpected favorite on TikTok. More than 250,000 videos now feature “Silver Springs,” with about 50,000 new uses every day, according to Tokchart. Users have been struck by the poise Stevie Nicks showed during a particular live performance and by the emotional weight of a song that almost slipped through the cracks.
In 1976, the band was in turmoil. Of the five members, there were two couples: John and Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Both couples were breaking up with each other, and the high emotions were only exacerbated by heavy drug use.
“We had two alternatives – go our own ways and see the band collapse, or grit our teeth and carry on playing with each other,” said Christine McVie. “Normally, when couples split, they don’t have to see each other again. We were forced to get over those differences.”
The writing sessions for “Rumours” became so prolific that not everything made the album. One blistering breakup song was relegated to the B-side of the “Go Your Own Way” single, but it has become one of their biggest streaming tracks in the last few years.
Stevie Nicks wrote “Silver Springs” about her breakup with Lindsey Buckingham, who had actually written “Go Your Own Way” about the same subject. The title came from a suburb of Washington, D.C. called Silver Spring, Maryland.
“I wrote ‘Silver Springs’ about Lindsey. And we were in Maryland somewhere driving under a freeway sign that said Silver Springs,” she said in the “Classic Albums: Rumours” video. “And I loved the name… Silver Springs sounded like a pretty fabulous place to me. And ‘You could be my silver springs’ – that’s just a whole symbolic thing of what you could have been to me.”
The track also became a deciding factor for Nicks quitting the band in 1991. She wanted to use it for a “best of” album of her own work, but Mick Fleetwood wouldn’t allow it, as he planned to put it on a career-spanning box set in 1992.
Fleetwood Mac broke up over time and disbanded in 1995. However, they reunited in 1997, leading to one of the most emotionally charged performances ever captured on film.
They recorded live concert footage of “Silver Springs” on a soundstage in Burbank, California, after rehearsing the music for over a month. The song begins serenely, with McVie setting the tone with gentle piano chords. The song has a general crescendo, with Nicks joined by McVie and Buckingham for a three-part harmony in the chorus. It’s then that she turns to Buckingham to sing her breakup song directly to him.
They lock eyes as she belts the powerful lyrics:
You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you
Was I such a fool?
I’ll follow you down til’ the sound of my voice will haunt you
“In six weeks of rehearsal, it was never like that…Only on Friday night did we let it go into something deeper,” Nicks told the Arizona Republic in 1997. “When we went on Friday, I knew we’d bring it out in case it was the last thing we’d ever do. The other shows were really, really good, but they weren’t the show I wanted to leave behind. This show was…I wanted people to stand back and really watch and understand what [the relationship with Lindsey] was.”
Relive that incredible moment and follow along with the sheet music for “Silver Springs”:
