The Dance (Fleetwood Mac album)

History[edit]

Recorded during a concert on 23 May 1997, The Dance was the last Fleetwood Mac album to feature Christine McVie as a full-time member before she left a year after the album's release although she returned to the band in 2014 to tour. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 199,000, The Dance became the fifth best-selling live album of all time in the United States, selling a million copies within eight weeks, spending more than seven months within the top 40, and eventually selling over 6,000,000 copies worldwide. The DVD version has been certified 9× platinum in Australia for selling 135,000 copies. The 44 date tour grossed $36 million.


Unlike 1980's Live, which was a collection of live recordings over a series of 60 shows, The Dance was recorded in one night, albeit with good isolation to allow for overdubs.^[1] The concert was recorded for Fleetwood Mac's MTV The Dance special at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, and features the University of Southern California Marching Band who perform on the tracks "Tusk" (having played on the original studio recording) and "Don't Stop".


Although the album is predominantly a live greatest hits package, The Dance also features new material written by each of the primary songwriting members of the band (with two from Buckingham) as well as popular album tracks. "Bleed to Love Her" was a previously unreleased track when The Dance was released, although a studio recording of the song was later included on the Say You Will (2003) album. No tracks from the Mirage album were included on the CD, although "Gypsy" was included in the video and DVD versions.


"Say You Love Me" received a folk rearrangement that featured a banjo and cocktail drum kit.^[2] John McVie also sang backing vocals for this performance.^[3]


The album was titled for Henri Matisse's painting, Dance, which was at one point intended to be used as the album cover but couldn't be licensed.^[4] The album cover photo, taken by David LaChapelle, has Mick Fleetwood recreating his pose from the cover of Rumours, the band's most successful album, and Lindsey Buckingham holding the cane used on the cover of the Fleetwood Mac album, Rumours' predecessor.


This album spawned three singles in the USA: "Landslide", "The Chain", and "Silver Springs" which earned the band three Grammy nominations in 1998, in the categories of "Best Pop Album", "Best Rock Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocal" for "The Chain" and "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for "Silver Springs". A fourth single, "Temporary One," was released in some European markets.


Buckingham originally wanted less overlap in the track listing between The Dance and their 1981 live album. "At first I thought this should be a more eclectic collection, with different songs that were a little more surprising. But Warner was very upset about that. They wanted more hits. They felt a live album from 1981 was irrelevant, and I guess they were right."^[2]


The band later embarked on a 44-date tour across the United States with one stop in Canada in support of The Dance. The setlist was similar to that of the album, but with "Over My Head" and "My Little Demon" being replaced by "Oh Daddy", "Second Hand News", "Stand Back", "Farmer's Daughter" (a cover of the Beach Boys song from Surfin' U.S.A.), and "Not That Funny". "Eyes of the World" was played instead of "Second Hand News" on opening night in Hartford, Connecticut.