Singer Christine Mcvie dies after short illness
Christine Mcvie, the British-born Fleetwood Mac vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player whose cool, soulful contralto helped define such classics as You Make Loving Fun and Don’t Stop, has died at age 79.
Her death was announced on the band’s social media accounts. No cause of death or other details were immediately provided, but a family statement said she “passed away peacefully at hospital” with family around her after a “short illness”.
“A few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975, had passed away,” bandmate Stevie Nicks said in a handwritten note posted to Instagram.
She added that one song has been “swirling around” in her head since she found out Mcvie was sick, quoting the lyrics to HAIM’S Hallelujah :“I had a best friend/but she has come to pass.”
Mcvie was a steady presence and personality in a band known for its frequent lineup changes and volatile personalities — notably fellow singersongwriters Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
Fleetwood Mac started out as a London blues band in the 1960s, and evolved into one of the defining makers of 1970s California pop-rock. During their peak commercial years, from 1975-80, the band sold tens of millions of records. Mcvie’s breakup with bassist John Mcvie — along with the split of Nicks and Buckingham — was famously documented on the 1977 release Rumours, among the bestselling albums of all time.
Everyone in the group played a distinctive role, with Mcvie the grounded counterpoint, her economy as a singer and player well suited to her birth surname: Perfect.
“I was supposedly like the Mother Teresa who would hang out with everybody or just try and [keep] everything nice and cool and relaxed,” she told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “But they were great people; they were great friends.”
Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. One of Mcvie’s most beloved works, Songbird, was a showcase for her in concert and covered by Willie Nelson, among others.
The midtempo rocker Don’t Stop, inspired by the end of her marriage, would gain unexpected political relevance when Bill Clinton adopted the song as a theme for his 1992 presidential run. The band, who had essentially stopped making albums at the time, reunited to perform at his inauguration gala.
Mcvie’s two marriages, to John Mcvie and Eduardo Quintela, both ended in divorce. Her boyfriends included the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson, about whom she wrote Only Over You.
Mcvie, born Christine Anne Perfect in Bouth, Lancashire, came from a musical family. She had been playing piano since childhood, but set aside her classical training once she heard early rock records by Fats Domino and others.
While studying at the Moseley School of Art, she befriended various members of Britain’s emerging blues scene and, in her 20s, joined the band Chicken Shack as a singer and piano player. Among the rival bands she admired was Fleetwood Mac. By 1970, she had joined the group and married John Mcvie.