Over My Head (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Over My Head" is a soft rock song performed by British/American music group Fleetwood Mac. The song was written by group keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie. It was the band's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100 since "Oh Well", ending a six-year dry spell on American charts.

"Over My Head"
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Fleetwood Mac (The White Album)
B-side"I'm So Afraid"
Released
  • September 1975 (US)
  • February 1976 (UK)
RecordedFebruary 1975
GenreSoft rock
Length3:38 (Album version)
3:09 (Single version)
LabelReprise
Songwriter(s)Christine McVie
Producer(s)
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"Warm Ways"
(1975)		 "Over My Head"
(1975)		 "Rhiannon"
(1976)

Background

In the U.S., Reprise Records selected "Over My Head" as the lead single from the 1975 LP Fleetwood Mac, a decision that surprised the band, who believed that the song was the "least likely track on Fleetwood Mac to be released as a single."[1] Nevertheless, it reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1976. The single's success helped the group's eponymous 1975 album sell eight million units.[2]

Christine McVie composed the song using a portable Hohner electric piano in a small apartment in Malibu, California, where she and then-husband John McVie (Fleetwood Mac's bassist) resided after completing a concert tour to promote the previous album, Heroes Are Hard to Find.[3] The original rhythm track consisted of just vocals, drums and a Dobro. Other instruments were later added to embellish the song, including McVie's Vox Continental organ.[1] Billboard described McVie's vocal performance as "a completely distinctive voice, with a sexy huskiness that is unique in pop today."[4]

The 45 RPM single version of the song released for radio airplay was a remixed, edited version that differed from the mix on the Fleetwood Mac album. The single version is distinguished by a cold start (rather than the fade-in intro on the LP version), louder guitar strums in the choruses and less ensemble vocal work overall. In addition, whereas the single version fades during its three-bar instrumental outro,[5] the album version tape-loops it to six bars upon fade-out. Finally, while the album version has a relatively wide stereo spectrum, the single version is mixed very narrowly (essentially mono) with stereo reverberation effects on some bongo passages and select guitar flourishes. It is this remixed/edited version that is included on the compilation album The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. The single version is also available as a bonus track on the 2004 remastered CD release of the Fleetwood Mac album.

Personnel

Chart performance

References
  1. "From the Archive: Christine McVie - KeyboardMag". www.keyboardmag.com. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  2. "News". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  3. Martin E. Adelson. "The McVie Story". Fleetwoodmac.net. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  4. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. October 11, 1975. p. 78. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  5. Everett, Walter (May 2010). "'If you're gonna have a hit': intratextual mixes and edits of pop recordings". Popular Music. 29 (2): 239. JSTOR 40926920.
  6. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1976-02-14. Retrieved 2018-12-21.
  7. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, January 10, 1976". Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  8. "Top Singles – Volume 26, No. 14 & 15, January 08 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  9. Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 978-0-89820-142-0.

Bibliography

The Great Rock Discography. Martin C. Strong. Page 378. ISBN 1-84195-312-1

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