“Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac

"Rhiannon" is Stevie Nicks' spell cast over Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album, and it went out as a single the next year. Nicks wrote it alone, and onstage she liked to call it a song about an old Welsh witch. Keith Olsen produced with the band, and it's a hypnotic thing: Christine McVie's keyboards shimmer, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood roll out a slinky, patient groove, Lindsey Buckingham's guitar glints around the edges, and the harmonies circle like smoke.

The record is cool and mysterious; live, between 1975 and 1982, it became something wilder, a slow build to a howling climax that Fleetwood compared to an exorcism. Rolling Stone later placed it at no. 488 among the greatest songs of all time.

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