A Bite of Stevie Nicks 🍪
Getting a daily dose of one of rock's greatest superstars
Monday Bites are bite-sized musician spotlights & playlists by Grace Lilly.
Enjoying the series? Support here to keep the good stuff coming 😊
🏆 A top-read post
• 3 min read •
I listened to her every morning
The summer going into my senior year of high school, I’d start each day by putting my beloved Rumours vinyl on the record player and turning the volume all the way up.
It was my first ever record, a prized possession I listened to day in and day out once I finally got a record player (I had the album for 3 long years before I could actually listen to it).
After so much anticipation, I wanted to soak it in, marinate in it. My favorite track was Stevie Nicks’ “I Don’t Want to Know.” Something about it instantly brightened my mood. The second it finished, I would immediately return to the record player and move the needle back to the start. I needed to hear it again.
I’d bop around, belting the words with her, “I just want you to feeeeel fiiiiine.”
Dancing my little heart out around the kitchen, her music always made me feel better. Turns out, that was her plan all along.
“I want people to put my songs on because they are unhappy and need a boost to dance around their apartment a little and feel good. That's why I write.”
Job well done, Stevie.
Stevie Nicks
The basics
🤝 American singer-songwriter
🤝 b. 1948 (Phoenix, Arizona)
🤝 “The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll”
Why you should know her: A global superstar, Nicks has been named one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone, and four of her songs have been included in their list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
If you like
✨ HAIM
✨ Jefferson Airplane
✨ Maggie Rogers
✨ Kate Bush
✨ Florence + The Machine
Known for
🏆 Her smoldering & gruff voice and mystical, mysterious songs
🏆 Being a member of Fleetwood Mac & a solo artist
🏆 Her bohemian sense of style which she calls her “uniform,” flowing clothing and platform boots
🏆 Releasing three of the “Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums” — Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Bella Donna
🏆 Her Fleetwood Mac album Rumours is rated the 7th Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone
Bite-sized facts
🍪 Born Stephanie Nicks, she could only pronounce her name as “tee dee” as a toddler which led to her nickname “Stevie”
🍪 Got a guitar for her 16th birthday, started writing songs, spent her teen years playing records constantly, and lived in her “own little musical world”
🍪 When she was 19, Lindsey Buckingham asked her to replace the lead singer in his psychedelic rock band Fritz, which soon opened for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jefferson Airplane
🍪 Planned to become an English teacher, went to San José State University with then-boyfriend Buckingham but dropped out and moved to LA to pursue a music career together
🍪 Worked multiple jobs before joining Fleetwood Mac, waited tables and cleaned houses
🍪 Joined Fleetwood Mac after Mick Fleetwood invited just Buckingham to join and he refused, insisting that he and Nicks were “a package deal”
🍪 Started her solo career in 1981 while still a member of Fleetwood Mac
🍪 Close friends with Tom Petty; in recent years, has befriended Lana Del Rey, HAIM, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift
🍪 Has written in a journal almost every day since she started with Fleetwood Mac
🍪 Often decorates her microphone stand with scarves, roses, ribbons, crystal beads, and small stuffed toys
🍪 Started a charity for wounded military members — she regularly purchases iPods for them, loads them with music & playlists that she hand-selects, and autographs them to raise their spirits
Songs & dates
♫ 1973 Releases Buckingham Nicks as a duo with Lindsey Buckingham
♫ 1975 Her songs “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” become hits off her first Fleetwood Mac album, the worldwide success Fleetwood Mac
♫ 1977 Her song “Dreams” becomes a No. 1 hit off her second Fleetwood Mac album, Rumours, which becomes one of the best-selling albums of all time
♫ 1981 Releases four hit singles as a solo artist “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Leather and Lace,” “Edge of Seventeen,” and “After the Glitter Fades” off her first solo album, Bella Donna, which reaches multiplatinum status and tops the Billboard 200
♫ 1983 Her second solo album, The Wild Heart, goes double platinum with 3 hit singles: “Stand Back” (feat. Prince playing the synthesizer), “If Anyone Falls,” and “Nightbird”
♫ 1992 Her song “Silver Springs” is finally released after she wrote & recorded it in 1977 during the production of Rumours
♫ 2001 “Planets of the Universe” is nominated for a Grammy Award, from her sixth solo album Trouble in Shangri-La
She said
⭐ “My mission maybe wasn't to be a mom and a wife; maybe my particular mission was to write songs to make moms and wives feel better.”
⭐ “At the ripe and totally young age of 70, my voice hasn’t changed. As long as I take care of myself, I am still going to be doing this when I’m 80.”
⭐ “I like to tell all my fairy goddaughters and my niece that when I'm gone they can sit on the floor and go through all these journals, and they can walk through my life, and they can smell the gardenia perfume on the pages. They can have it in their hands, who I was.”
Stevie Nicks Playlist
I gathered my fav Stevie songs, from me to you with love. Like & save on Spotify and listen all week 💗
Where to start
“I must be very old underneath 'cuz I love old beautiful things”
In 1977, Stevie talks being an old soul, joining Fleetwood Mac, and her love of animals
〰️
In the “Bootylicious” music video
Beyoncé gushes about Stevie being in the music video for Destiny’s Child “Bootylicious” and how Stevie’s music inspired the song in this MTV Making the Video episode
〰️
Her No. 1 hit
Performing her 1977 best-selling song “Dreams” with Fleetwood Mac
〰️
Harry and Stevie
Singing her song “Landslide” with Harry Styles in 2019
Down the rabbit hole
If you wanna dive even deeper:
Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams (2013)
Co-directed by Stevie Nicks, this documentary follows her as she begins writing and recording her first solo album in nearly a decade. Watch on Google Play.
Show some love
If you enjoyed this post, “like” it & leave a comment! It makes me very happy 🥰
👀 Bonus: your engagement helps people find us in search engines, so taking a moment to say a few words makes a real difference!
An average concert ticket costs $122.84 🎟️
An annual subscription to This Song Changed My Life costs less than half of that ($50 to be exact).
Become a paid subscriber
Chipping in helps ensure the continued existence of TSCML — plus you’ll instantly unlock 30+ secret, paid-only posts (and counting).
People love it
What paid subscribers are saying
“I love this series! Want to pitch in so you can keep up the high quality content”
“Happy to support the good stuff”
“I believe watching your work develop will by itself change my life”
Learn more about me and my other projects: check out my personal newsletter, Weirdly Good <3
Explore
The sultry cultural icon who influenced generations — A Bite of Brigitte Bardot 🍪
The touching music of one of the most singular artists and innovators of all time — A Bite of Arthur Russell 🍪
I've always loved Stevie Nicks! Have you heard her new song The Lighthouse?! It's a pretty amazing piece of work that is very relevant to today! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDCYh5iWQs