“Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac

"Go Your Own Way" is where Rumours, Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, lets the heartbreak out at full volume. It was the record's lead single, out in America on 20 December 1976 and in Britain on 11 February 1977, and it gave the band their first top-ten hit in the States. Lindsey Buckingham wrote it and sings it, and he wrote it about his breakup with his bandmate Stevie Nicks, who sings on it too. That's the knife in it: a kiss-off delivered in front of the very person it's aimed at.

It sounds spontaneous, all urgency and frayed nerves, but it was anything but. The track was pieced together over four months in three different studios, with nothing played live as a band; every part went down as an overdub. Buckingham's guitar stings and snarls, Mick Fleetwood's drums tumble and lurch, John McVie holds the bottom and Christine McVie adds keyboards and her voice to the harmonies, with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut producing alongside the band.

Critics have loved it ever since. Rolling Stone later ranked it second on its list of the 50 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.