"Over My Head"
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Fleetwood Mac
B-side"I'm So Afraid"
Released
  • September 1975 (US)
  • 27 February 1976 (UK) [1]
RecordedFebruary 1975
GenreSoft rock
Length3:38 (Album Version)
3:09 (Single Version)
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Christine McVie
Producer(s)
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"Warm Ways"
(1975)		 "Over My Head"
(1975)		 "Rhiannon"
(1976)

"Over My Head" is a soft rock song recorded by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac for their self-titled 1975 album. The song was written by keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie. "Over My Head" was the band's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100 since "Oh Well", ending a six-year dry spell on the American charts.

Background

Christine McVie composed the song using a portable Hohner electric piano in a small apartment in Malibu, California, where she and then-husband John McVie (Fleetwood Mac's bassist) resided after completing a concert tour to promote Heroes Are Hard to Find, the previous album.[2]

The lyrics were inspired by her relationship with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. “I think that was based on a sort of fantasy about Lindsey, really. I think that was a sort of an ode to the gorgeous Lindsey at the time.”[3][4] The original rhythm track consisted of just vocals, drums and a Dobro. Other instruments were added later to embellish the song, including McVie's Vox Continental organ.[5] Buckingham used open D tuning on the studio version and also kept a Fender Stratocaster with the same tuning onstage for early live performances.[6]

In the U.S., Reprise Records selected "Over My Head" as the lead single from the 1975 LP Fleetwood Mac, a decision that surprised McVie, who believed that "Over My Head" was an unlikely choice for a single.[5] Nevertheless, the song reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1976. The single's success helped the group's eponymous 1975 album sell 8 million units.[7]

Single remix

The 45 RPM single version of the song released for radio airplay was a remixed, edited version that differed from the version on the Fleetwood Mac album. The single version is distinguished by a cold start rather than the fade-in intro on the LP version, louder guitar strums in the choruses, and different vocal harmonies.[2] Additionally, the single version fades during its three-bar instrumental outro[8] whereas the album version tape-loops it to six bars upon fade-out. Further, while the album version has a relatively wide stereo image, the single version is mixed narrowly (essentially mono) with stereo reverberation effects on some bongo passages and select guitar flourishes. The single remix was completed by Deke Richards, who had previously worked with The Jackson 5 on some of their earlier hits.[2]

The aforementioned remixed/edited version is the one included on the compilation album The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. The single version is also available as a bonus track on the 2004 remastered CD release of the album Fleetwood Mac.[9]

Critical reception

Cash Box wrote that "versatility is again demonstrated with a boiling rhythm subtly driving a soft McCartney-like vocal, shaded by organ and sweet, answering harmony."[10] Record World said the song has a "clean, confident folk-rock sound" and that "Christine McVie takes the lead here over a network of jangly acoustic guitars, singing in a rich, deep voice."[11] In a 1975 review, Billboard described McVie's vocal performance as "a completely distinctive voice, with a sexy huskiness that is unique in pop today."[12] The Guardian and Paste ranked the song number 17 and number 11 respectively on their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.[13][14]

Personnel

Chart performance

References

  1. ↑ Hung, Steffen. "Fleetwood Mac - Over My Head". Hitparade.ch. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Fleetwood, Mick (2014). Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography. Little, Brown. pp. 169, 179. ISBN 978-0316403405.
  3. ↑ "BBC Four - Fleetwood Mac's Songbird - Christine McVie". BBC.
  4. ↑ DeMain, Bill (4 January 2023). "How Christine McVie wrote the song that gave Fleetwood Mac their future". Louder. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  5. 1 2 "From the Archive: Christine McVie - KeyboardMag". www.keyboardmag.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Guitar Player (01/1977), Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham". The Blue Letter Archives. 1 January 1977. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  7. ↑ "News". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 17 January 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  8. ↑ Everett, Walter (May 2010). "'If you're gonna have a hit': intratextual mixes and edits of pop recordings". Popular Music. 29 (2): 239. doi:10.1017/S026114301000005X. JSTOR 40926920. S2CID 162240986.
  9. ↑ Puterbaugh, Parke (2004). Fleetwood Mac (2004 Remastered Edition) (Liner Notes). Fleetwood Mac. Los Angeles: Reprise Records. p. 8.
  10. ↑ "CashBox Singles Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 11 October 1975. p. 27. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  11. ↑ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. 11 October 1975. p. 1. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  12. ↑ "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. 11 October 1975. p. 78. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  13. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (19 May 2022). "Fleetwood Mac's 30 greatest songs – ranked!". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  14. ↑ Mitchell, Matt (7 August 2023). "The 30 Greatest Fleetwood Mac Songs". Paste. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  15. ↑ "RPM Top Singles - 17 January 1976" (PDF). Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 17 January 1976. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  16. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 14 February 1976. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  17. ↑ "Fleetwood Mac Hot 100 Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  18. ↑ "Fleetwood Mac Adult Contemporary Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  19. ↑ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, January 10, 1976". Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  20. ↑ "Top Singles – Volume 26, No. 14 & 15, January 08 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  21. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 978-0-89820-142-0.

Bibliography

The Great Rock Discography. Martin C. Strong. Page 378. ISBN 1-84195-312-1

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