The 35th anniversary reissues of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours hit stores today.  The band's historic 1977 album is available as a six-disc Deluxe Edition and a three-CD Expanded Edition.  The deluxe package offers a remastered version of the original record plus the B-side "Silver Springs," along with a variety of demos and outtakes, a CD of a '77 concert performances, a DVD boasting a making-of documentary and a high-quality vinyl LP.

As fans familiar with the history of Fleetwood Mac know, at the time Rumours was being recorded, all five members of the band were going through major personal turmoil.  Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, who were a couple when they joined the group in 1975, were in the process of breaking up.  In addition, John McVie and Christine McVie had just divorced, while Mick Fleetwood's own marriage was on the rocks.  This upheaval was reflected in, and inspired, many of the tunes that wound up on the album, including such hits as "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop."

Nicks admitted that as hard as that time may have been emotionally for the band members, it also was a very positive period for the group, in part because of the quality of the music being made.

"We were all writing little movies around what was really happening and we were digging it," she explained.  "We were having a lot of fun recording those songs, even though we were falling apart…If anything was keeping us from falling apart it was going into the studio every day.  And we were totally having a great time."

The singer also maintains that although she and her band mates may have been experiencing a lot of hurt with regard to the state of their relationships, on the whole, they had little to complain about.

"We were rich.  We were young," said Nicks.  "We were falling out of love with each other but, hey, there was a lot of other…men and women in the world.  [And] we were all movin' on and we had these great jobs.  So, as bad as it was, it was still great."

Following its release in February 1977, Rumours went on to top the Billboard 200 chart en route to winning the Grammy for Album of the Year.  It has sold more than 19 million copies in the U.S. alone, making it the ninth-best-selling album ever released in the States.  Fleetwood Mac fans can expect to hear plenty of tunes from the record if they check out a show on the band's upcoming North American tour, which kicks off April 4 in Columbus, Ohio.

 

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