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Silver Springs (song)

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"Silver Springs"
Song by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Rumours
A-side"Go Your Own Way"
Released1976
Length4:29
Label
Songwriter(s)Stevie Nicks
Producer(s)
"Silver Springs (live)"
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album The Dance
Released22 July 1997 (1997-07-22)
RecordedJune 1997
VenueWarner Brothers Studios (Burbank, California)
Length5:41
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Stevie Nicks
Producer(s)
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"The Chain (live)"
(1997) 		"Silver Springs (live)"
(1997) 		"Landslide (live)"
(1998)

"Silver Springs" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and performed by British-American band Fleetwood Mac. It was originally intended for the band's 1977 album Rumours, but became a B-side to the song "Go Your Own Way". A live version was released as a single from the 1997 album The Dance; this version of the song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1998.

History

Written by Stevie Nicks, "Silver Springs" was intended for the album Rumours. Years after the fact, Nicks commented that the song's exclusion from the album marked a growing tension in the band. The track describes Nicks's perspective on the ending of the romantic relationship between her and the lead guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham.[1][2] She has said,

I wrote "Silver Springs" about Lindsey. And we were in Maryland somewhere driving under a freeway sign that said Silver Springs (sic), Maryland. 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.[3]

According to Rolling Stone, "Nicks' tender yet vengeful post-mortem on her breakup with Buckingham [became] an emotional lightning rod. The song would have behind-the-scenes repercussions for decades to come – nearly leading to the breakup of the band."[1] For multiple reasons, including its length and relatively slower tempo, the song was excluded from the Rumours album despite strenuous and repeated objections from Nicks.[1] In a 1997 documentary on the making of Rumours, Richard Dashut, the engineer and co-producer, called it "the best song that never made it to a record album".[4] The song was, however, released in late 1976 as the B-side of the "Go Your Own Way" single,[1] a Buckingham-written song about the couple's breakup.[5][6]

Years later, the band went on a world tour to promote the Fleetwood Mac album Behind the Mask. After the tour concluded, Nicks left the group over a dispute with Mick Fleetwood, who would not allow her to release "Silver Springs" on her 1991 album Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks because of his plans to release it on a forthcoming Fleetwood Mac box set.[7] The song subsequently appeared on the 1992 box set 25 Years – The Chain.[8]

When the remastered edition of Rumours was released in 2004, "Silver Springs" was included (as a previously unreleased, slightly longer version of 4:47) between "Songbird" and "The Chain". The song also appeared on Nicks' compilation album Crystal Visions - The Very Best of Stevie Nicks. She wrote in the album's liner notes that the song was intended as a gift for her mother, who later referred to it as her "rainy day song", and that the exclusion of the song from Rumours was a source of anger for many years.[9] Nicks was particularly upset that "Silver Springs" initially earned little money in royalties for her mother.[10]

Live version

In 1997, "Silver Springs" got a second life on the reunion album The Dance. During the filming of the reunion concert that reunited Nicks and Buckingham, the track was on the setlist. Nicks said "the fiery take on the song that appears in The Dance was 'for posterity...I wanted people to stand back and really watch and understand what [the relationship with Lindsey] was.'"[1] The Dance was recorded across three performances at Warner Brothers Studios in June 1997.[11] "I never thought that 'Silver Springs' would ever be performed onstage [again]," Nicks reflected during a 1997 MTV interview. "My beautiful song just disappeared [20 years ago]. For it to come back around like this has really been special to me".[1]

The live version of "Silver Springs" was released as a radio single in the United States on 22 July 1997, and it was physically issued in the Netherlands the same year.[11][12] This version appeared on several music charts, including the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart (number 41),[13] the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart (number 38),[14] and the Dutch Single Top 100 (number 96).[12] In 1998, the track was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.[15][1][16]

Legacy

The Guardian and Paste ranked the song number six and number two, respectively, on their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.[17][18]

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[25] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Spanos, Brittany (17 August 2017). "'Silver Springs': Inside Fleetwood Mac's Great Lost Breakup Anthem". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Stevie Nicks Interview - Off The Record". Retrieved 4 December 2012 – via Nicksfix.Com.
  3. ^ "Stevie Nicks on Silver Springs". www.inherownwords.com.
  4. ^ Fleetwood Mac - Rumours: Classic Albums. Dir. David Heffernan. Isis Productions/Daniel Television 1997
  5. ^ Sanburn, Josh (24 August 2010). "Top 10 Angry Breakup Songs". Time – via entertainment.time.com.
  6. ^ No Words, No Song (24 March 2019). "'Go Your Own Way' — Fleetwood Mac". Medium.
  7. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Timeline for the 1990s". Fleetwoodmac-uk.com. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  8. ^ "25 Years: The Chain - Fleetwood Mac | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  9. ^ Wild, David (2007). Crystal Visions...The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (Liner Notes). Stevie Nicks. Reprise Records.
  10. ^ "The Story of Stevie Nicks' 'Silver Springs': 'Probably the Best Song I've Ever Written' (Exclusive)". People. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  11. ^ a b Flick, Larry; Newman, Melinda (16 August 1997). "Fleetwood Mac Back with Album, Video". Billboard. Vol. 109, no. 33. p. 11.
  12. ^ a b c "Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs (Live)" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  13. ^ a b "Fleetwood Mac Chart History (Radio Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Top RPM Singles: Issue 3355." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  15. ^ Silver Springs at AllMusic
  16. ^ "Grammy Award Results: Fleetwood Mac". Grammy.com. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  17. ^ Petridis, Alexis (19 May 2022). "Fleetwood Mac's 30 greatest songs – ranked!". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  18. ^ Mitchell, Matt (7 August 2023). "The 30 Greatest Fleetwood Mac Songs". Paste. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  19. ^ "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 3370." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  20. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Chart History (Adult Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  22. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Chart History (Adult Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  23. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  24. ^ "RPM '97 Year End Top 100 Adult Contemporary Tracks". RPM. Retrieved 28 June 2019 – via Library and Archives Canada.
  25. ^ "British single certifications – Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
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