Songoftheday 6/10/12 - Can you understand me, baby don't you hand me a line...

Fleetwood Mac - "Hold Me"

from the album Mirage (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (seven weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is by California rock legends Fleetwood Mac. Started out as an English blues-rock outfit in the late 60s, the group in its most popular form came together after the recruitment of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in the 70s. With the classic album Rumours, the group took their inner personal turmoils and translated it to one of the most successful and critically acclaimed albums of all time. However, by the early 80s, the band had been completely fractured, with both Nicks and Buckingham releasing successful solo records, and the band on a three-year break.

The Mirage album was recorded in France, at the castle where Elton John recorded his Honky Chateau album at outside Paris. The first single from the album was "Hold Me", sung by my favorite Maccer Christine McVie, and co-written by McVie and band opening act Robbie Patton, who McVie helped get a top-40 hit of his own the year before with "Don't Give It Up". "Hold Me" brought the band back from the experimental nature of their previous Tusk LP for a more straightforward melodic pop sound.

The song made the pop, rock, and adult contemporary (soft-rock) top ten, but was a complete dud in Britain, not even charting in its first release, and scraping the top-100 at #94 when re-released to promote  their Greatest Hits set. However in the States, the song was the band's biggest hit of the 80s, matching the peak position of 1987's "Little Lies" (coincidentally also sung by Christine).

Up tomorrow: the band named for the ancestor of the pickup truck.