But the team is eager to get creative. The result was the less commercial sound of the double-album follow-up, Tusk, released in 1979. While unsuccessful on a scale close to “Rumor,” it sold more than 2 million copies and spawned three hits, including “Think About Me” by Ms. McVie.
The group entered the new decade well with the release of “Mirage” in 1982, which reached number one in the US. 1 With Lady Assist McVie’s “Hold Me” was a top five hit inspired by her tumultuous relationship with Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson . Two years later, Ms. McVie released a top 30 solo album, and her biggest single, “Got a Hold on Me,” broke the top 10.
In 1987, the reconvened Fleetwood Mac released “Tango of the Night,” featuring two hits written by Ms. McVie, “Everywhere” and “Little Lies.” (“Little Lies” was co-written with musician Eddie Kintra, whom she had married the previous year. They would divorce in 2003.) Not long after, Buckingham left the band, shaken by the Records become the driving force behind stardom. The 1990 album “Behind the Mask” barely went gold and produced only a Top 40 single (“Save Me,” written by Ms. McVie), while “Time,” released five years later, bombed.
Mrs. McVie did not tour with the band in support of “Time.” But in the early 1990s, her hit single “Don’t Stop” attracted widespread new attention when it became the theme song to Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaign. In 1993, Mr. Clinton persuaded five hitters to get back together to perform at the inaugural ball.
In 1997, they reunited for a tour, producing the live album “The Dance”, one of the best-selling concert recordings of all time. By the following year, however, she was inspired by a growing fear of flying and a desire to return to the UK from the band’s adopted home of Los Angeles. McVie retired to the English countryside.
Five years later, she agreed to add some keyboard parts and backing vocals to a largely neglected Fleetwood Mac album, “Say You Will,” and in 2006 produced a little-known solo album, “In the Meantime.” , which she recorded and co-wrote with her guitarist nephew Dan Perfect.