Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Landslide"
Song by Fleetwood Mac from the album Fleetwood Mac
Recorded	1975
Genre	Folk rock
Length	3:19
Label	Reprise Records
Writer(s)	Stevie Nicks
Producer(s)	Fleetwood Mac Keith Olsen
Audio sample file info · help

"Landslide" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and performed by British-American music group Fleetwood Mac. It was first featured on the band's 1975 eponymous album Fleetwood Mac. Along with "Rhiannon", it would be Nicks' first original contribution to the band upon joining. A live version was released as a single 23 years later from the live reunion album The Dance. This version reached #51 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Landslide" was certified Gold in October 2009 for sales of over 500,000 copies in the U.S. According to Nielsen Soundscan, "Landslide" has sold 1,315,950 copies in the U.S. as of February 2013.

Song creation

Nicks has said that she wrote this song while she was contemplating going back to school or continuing on professionally with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Their album Buckingham Nicks had been dropped by Polydor Records and she and Buckingham were not getting along. She wrote the song while visiting Aspen, Colorado, sitting in someone's living room "looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us ... at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways".^[1]

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Certifications

Stevie Nicks versions

There are currently 7 different versions commercially available featuring Nicks on vocals:

• Fleetwood Mac (1975). The original recording also appears on the compilation albums 25 Years – The Chain (1992) and The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002).
• Live (1980). Recorded live in London, June 27, 1980, at the Wembley Arena during the Tusk Tour.
• The Dance (1997). Live track released as a maxi-single, which also included 3 remixes of the original 1975 recording.
• VH1 Divas Las Vegas (2002). Performed live with the Dixie Chicks.
• Live in Boston (2004)
• Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007). Performed live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
• The Soundstage Sessions (2009). Performed live in Chicago for the PBS program Soundstage. An alternate performance from this event is included on her Live in Chicago DVD.

The song is one of Fleetwood Mac's most frequently performed songs on tour. Nicks has performed it on every Fleetwood Mac tour since joining the band, with the exception of the Shake the Cage tour, as well as all of her own solo tours from 2005 onwards.^[8] Nicks also regularly performs it along with "Stand Back" during television guest appearances.

Personnel

• Stevie Nicks – lead vocals
• Lindsey Buckingham – guitar
• Christine McVie – keyboards — on live performances between 1975–1982
• Waddy Wachtel – guitar — on Nicks's solo tours and appearances

Cover versions

The Smashing Pumpkins

Alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins made an acoustic cover of the song that was featured as the B-side to their 1994 single "Disarm" and later on their B-side collection Pisces Iscariot. The cover went on to be one of the rock band's most-beloved tracks and even had the approval of Nicks herself. As she told fans during a 1998 online chat with SonicNet, "There's nothing more pleasing to a songwriter than [someone else] doing one of their songs. ['Landslide'] also led me to being friends with Billy [Corgan] and the possibility that we'll work together," she said of the Smashing Pumpkins frontman. "Over this song, there's been this incredible connection ... he reached out ... I believe that my poetry is really meant for everyone, no matter what age." The cover was a hit, making it to the top three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. that year and number 30 on the U.S. Airplay charts. The song was also featured on the U.S. version of their greatest hits album Rotten Apples.

Dixie Chicks

"Landslide"
Single by Dixie Chicks
from the album Home
Released	September 2, 2002
Format	CD
Recorded	2001–2002
Genre	Country
Length	3:50
Label	Columbia Nashville
Writer(s)	Stevie Nicks
Producer(s)	Dixie Chicks, Lloyd Maines
Certification	Gold (RIAA) Gold (ARIA)
Dixie Chicks singles chronology
"Long Time Gone" (2002) "Landslide" (2002) "Travelin' Soldier" (2002)

The country group Dixie Chicks then covered "Landslide" on their 2002 album Home. It was released September 2, 2002 as the album's second single. This rendition, featuring the group's trademark two- and three-part harmonies reached the Top 10 of both the Billboard Hot 100 (number 7) and Hot Country Songs charts (number 2) as well as several other charts. It became the Dixie Chicks' only number 1 single (to date) on the adult contemporary chart. Lead singer Natalie Maines said she was attracted, in part, to the song because she was then the same age that Nicks was when she initially performed it. Their rendition has been certified Gold by both the RIAA and ARIA, matching the commercial success of the original.

"Landslide" debuted at #32 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart for the week of September 7, 2002.

Year-end charts

Certifications

Stacey Kent

Jazz vocalist Stacey Kent made an acoustic cover of the song that was featured on her 2007 album Breakfast on the Morning Tram.

Glee version

The cast of Fox Broadcasting Company's musical television program, Glee, covered the song in Season 2, Episode 15, "Sexy". Gwyneth Paltrow, Naya Rivera, and Heather Morris are featured on vocals for this version. Stevie Nicks attended the filming of the song and stated that it was a "beautiful mix" of the original and Dixie Chicks version.^[24] The Glee version reached the top 40 on the singles charts of Australia (No. 38), Canada (No. 35), Ireland (No. 36), and the United States (No. 23). In addition to reaching number 52 on the UK Singles Chart, the cover also prompted renewed interest in the Fleetwood Mac and Dixie Chicks versions, leading to those artists' renditions re-entering the chart at numbers 178 and 196, respectively.^[5]

Other covers

• Antony Hegarty covered the song for the covers album A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac
• Bush (The Sea of Memories, 2011). It is a bonus track on the deluxe edition of the album.
• Tori Amos has played the song repeatedly whilst touring over the span of her career.
• John Frusciante (The Viper Room, 1997)
• Sin Fang ("Landslide"/"The Only Living Boy in New York", 2010)
• Miley Cyrus covered this song on her Gypsy Heart Tour and on her Bangerz Tour.
• Paramore covered part of this song during their performance at the Fueled by Ramen 15th anniversary show and kept it as a part of their setlist on the following tours, as a bridge to their song "In The Mourning".
• Venice (Spin Art, 1999 and 2 Meter Sessies, 2000)
• Avenue D (band) covered this song on their 2007 album D Sides
• Lady Antebellum, Kacey Musgraves and Kip Moore covered this song in concert at the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, CA on 3/15/14.
• Robyn Sherwell covered this song, a recorded version of which was featured in a Suffragette (film) trailer.
• The Anchoress (as Catherine A.D.) covered the song on her 2009 EP "In The Bleak Midwinter".
• Lady Antebellum covered this song again, but this time without their guests, in the 2nd North American leg of their Wheels Up Tour
• Britta Phillips covered this song on her 2016 album Luck or Magic.

Appearances in other media

• The original 1975 song appeared in 2011 as a downloadable track for the music video game Rock Band 3.
• The original 1975 song is used at the end of the South Park episodes "You're Getting Old" and "Ass Burgers".
• Appears on a mixtape in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• The original 1975 song is played at the end of the Cold Case episode "Fireflies" and The Smashing Pumpkins' cover is played at the end of the episode "Detention".
• The Smashing Pumpkins version was used in the TV show Alias on season 1 in the episode Page 47.
• The live version from The Dance is featured in the 1998 movie Jack Frost, though it did not appear on the soundtrack CD. It also was heard in the 2004 movie Jersey Girl directed by Kevin Smith.
• Mentioned by John Cusack's character in High Fidelity.
• Performed by Mark Duplass' character in season 1 episode 6 of The Mindy Project.
• The original 1975 song appears in a TV commercial for Budweiser that debuted during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013.
• Parodied by Lucy Lawless (in character as Stevie Nicks) in the October 17, 1998, episode of Saturday Night Live.^[25]
• The song appears in a trailer for the 1998 film One True Thing, starring Meryl Streep, William Hurt and Renee Zellweger.

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics