Stevie Nicks said that the emotional trauma of everyone in the band suffering through a romantic breakup during the album's sessions pushed the group towards cocaine - which kick-started a decade-long addiction that nearly killed her.

Y'know, you could certainly make a case for saying that we made a great deal of success on a career level but we were pretty dismal failures in our personal lives, for any number of years, y'know?вЂќ And it was a very literal portrayal of what was really going on behind the scenes. Lindsey Buckingham understands that the psychodrama between him and former lover Stevie Nicks - not to mention the divorce of Christine and John McVie - was the gasoline that ran the engine of the band, especially during the legendary Rumours album: вЂњOne of the real draws of Fleetwood Mac beyond the music in those earlier days was this musical soap opera. Rumours spawned four Top 10 singles - Lindsey Buckingham's вЂњGo Your Own Way,вЂќ which hit Number 10 Stevie Nicks' вЂњDreamsвЂќ - which remains to this day the band's sole chart-topping single Christine McVie's вЂњDon't Stop,вЂќ which peaked at Number Three and вЂњYou Make Loving FunвЂќ - which topped out at Number Nine According to the RIAA's current list, Rumours is now tied for the eighth best-selling album in history alongside 1977's Saturday Night Fever soundtrack Shania Twain's 1997 collection, Come On Over.

To date, the album, which spent 31 non-consecutive weeks on top of the Billboard 200 albums chart, has sold over 40 million copies globally. It was 45 years ago today (February 4th, 1977) that Fleetwood Mac released their masterpiece, Rumours.

Fleetwood mac albums history