RPM MAGAZINE - May 20, 1978
by J.J. Linden
Warner Bros. album Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, this year's Juno Award winner as top selling international album, has become the first album in history to ever sell one million units in Canada. The milestone was announced recently by WEA Music of Canada, who noted, "This unprecedented accomplishment of 1,000,000 units not only reflects the unparalleled artistry of Fleetwood Mac, but also reflects the enormous potential of the Canadian market to those who can fully tap it."
The album was released in February of 1977. At that time, WEA Music quickly implemented a full-scale marketing program, with promotion and sales teams throughout the country working full-force to national exposure gain and visibility for the album. The sales force concentrated on obtaining prominent displays from tiny independents to the largest chain stores. The promotion and publicity team embarked on a virtually unequaled media campaign to break the album in Canada.
The company's marketing efforts began to pay off almost immediately. Go Your Own Way, the first single released from the album, became a major hit across the coun try. It was followed quickly by three more hit singles, Dreams, Don't Stop and You Make Lovin' Fun. As each subsequent hit showed the commercial value of the album, sales began to increase rapidly. WEA's national promotion manager Larry Green notes, "We were very conscious of the possibility of the album going five or six times platinum by the second single. The Eagles do it and Queen does it - we really saw this thing flying bỳ the second single. By the third single, it was a pretty tremendous growth situation, and by the fourth single...
WEA attributes a large portion of the album's success to AM radio airplay. At the time of release in February of 1977, there were really only four major market AOR stations in Canada, and it was the succession of top hit singles, coupled with a monstrous in-store effort on the part of the company, that WEA feels played the largest role in the album's tremendous sales.
Green notes the company's happiness with the results: "We're tremendously proud. It stems from everyone in the com-pany. It's a situation where promotion and sales worked so closely in virtually every step to bring this thing home. Near the end, everyone within the company was excited, from the guys in the warehouse right up the top. Everybody was conscious of the program. We knew we were getting close, and literally everybody threw 110 percent into it to bring sales over the top so quickly. One person in particular who saw it as a million seller without any doubts is Bill Johnston, our Warner Bros. label manager, a musicologist and a Fleetwood Mac fanatic. He saw it coming, probably before anyone else, and really got on the ball."
But the ultimate success of the Rumours album really lies in Fleetwood Mac them-selves. First formed in 1967 by drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John MeVie and Peter Green in England, the group underwent a ten-year period of near-constant change, involving to this date a total of 11 albums (the last nine with Warner Bros.), periods various blues, jazz and rock influences, and personnel changes involving such musicians as Jermy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch. Only Fleetwood and McVie remain from the original glomeration, and they are the only two Britons in the now U.S.-based group.
Two major changes through the years have ultimately led Fleetwood Mac from their blues-rock birth to their current ultra commercial sound. The first was the addition of Christine MeVie shortly after the fourth album, Kiln House. John McVie's wife and former leader of blues band Chickenshack, Christine added keyboards and vocals, and with Welch, brought about the beginning of the musical turnaround.
The second change, following the departure of Kirwan and Welch, was the addition of folksinging duo Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Buckingham's unique lead guitar style blended with the unusual rhythms of Fleetwood and McVie, and Nicks' ultra-soft voice contrasted the deeper, harder vocals of Christine McVie. Buckingham also contributes lead and background vocals, serving as a third front person and offering another vocal perspective.
The result was the group's self-titled tenth album, which produced major hits in Over My Head, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me, moving several hundred thousand units in Canada and establishing the group in pop music. The album readied them for the breakthrough that was Rumours
Fleetwood Mac are currently preparing a 12th album to follow up their million seller, for a release date not yet announced In the meantime, Rumours continues to sell, after over a year. Green notes, "Its just phenomenal! One out of every 23 Canadians has bought the album. It's in one out of every six homes.
