Rhiannon (song)

"Rhiannon"
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Fleetwood Mac
B-side"Sugar Daddy"
ReleasedFebruary 1976 (US)[1]
April 1976 (UK)[2]
RecordedFebruary 1975
Genre
Length4:11 (album version)
3:46 (single version)
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Stevie Nicks
Producer(s)
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"Over My Head"
(1975) 		"Rhiannon"
(1976) 		"Say You Love Me"
(1976)

"Rhiannon" (released as a single under the title "Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)") is a song written by Stevie Nicks and originally recorded by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac on their eponymous album in 1975; it was issued as a single the following year. The song's U.S. chart peak was in June 1976, when it hit no. 11.[3] The song peaked at no. 46 in the UK singles chart for three weeks after re-release in February 1978.[4]

"Rhiannon" was voted no. 488 in The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. They also ranked the song number six on their list of the 50 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.[5]

When Nicks performed the song live, she often introduced it as "a song about an old Welsh witch."[6] During 1975–1982, 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's vocals were so impassioned that, as drummer and band co-founder Mick Fleetwood recalled, "her Rhiannon in those days was like an exorcism."[7]

  1. ^ "Fleetwood mac singles".
  2. ^ Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. Canongate Press. p. 296. ISBN 9780862415419.
  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. ^ "Fleetwood Mac's 50 Greatest Songs". Rolling Stone. 22 September 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  6. ^ "17 Reasons This 'Rhiannon' Clip Is the Coolest Thing in the Universe". Rolling Stone. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Stevie Nicks - Behind the Music". rockalittle.com.