Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song)

1975 song by Fleetwood Mac

"Landslide" is a song by British American rock band Fleetwood Mac, written and performed by singer Stevie Nicks. The song was first featured on the band's self titled album Fleetwood Mac (1975). The original recording also appears on the compilation albums 25 Years – The Chain (1992), The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002) and 50 Years – Don't Stop (2018), while a live version was released as a single 23 years later from the live reunion album The Dance (1997). "Landslide" reached No. (Number) 51 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Landslide" was certified gold in October 2009 for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States. According to Nielsen Soundscan, "Landslide" sold 2,093,186 copies in the United States as of 2017. In 2021, the song was listed at No. 163 on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song is written and composed in the key of B flat major and is set in a time signature (alla breve) with a tempo of 80 beats per minute.

Nicks has said that she wrote the song while contemplating either going back to school or continuing on professionally with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks wrote "Landslide" while she was financially supporting both herself and Buckingham by taking up jobs as both a waitress and a cleaning lady. Following the release of their debut album Buckingham Nicks, they had been dropped from their recording contract by Polydor Records before they could release a follow up. Nicks wrote the song while visiting Aspen, Colorado, sitting in someone's living room "looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways." The song is one of Fleetwood Mac's most frequently performed during tours. Nicks has sung it on every Fleetwood Mac tour since joining the band, with the exception of the Shake the Cage tour, and has performed it on all of her own solo tours from 2005 onwards. A live performance of "Landslide" recorded on 27 June 1980 at the London Wembley Arena was included on Live. While "Landslide" was never issued as a single on its initial release in 1975, Fleetwood Mac did release a live version from Fleetwood Mac's 1997 album The Dance; it peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's 24th entry on the chart. "Landslide" also reached the top 30 on both the US and Canadian adult contemporary charts. Other live recordings of "Landslide" also appear on Live in Boston (2004), Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007) (with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), The Soundstage Sessions (2009), Soundstage, and the Live in Chicago DVD.

In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone wrote that Nicks seemed "lost and out of place" on "Landslide" and that her voice sounded "callow and mannered". Retrospective reviews have been more positive, with certain publications such as The Guardian and Paste ranking "Landslide" amongst the band's best work. AllMusic described "Landslide" as a traditional song "built on a very simple (and very effective) country folk inspired chord progression".

+Release dates and formats for "Landslide"RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference)United States26 August 2002Country radioOpen Wide, Monument Records, Monument, Columbia Records, Columbia28 October 2002Adult contemporary, hot adult contemporary, hot AC, Adult album alternative, triple A radio18 November 2002Contemporary hit radioAustralia24 March 2003CDUnited Kingdom7 April 2003Columbia

The cast of Fox Broadcasting Company's musical television program, Glee, performed the song in Season 2, Episode 15, "Sexy". Gwyneth Paltrow, Naya Rivera, and Heather Morris are featured on vocals for this version. Stevie Nicks attended the filming of the song and stated that it was a "beautiful mix" of the original and the Chicks version.