Robbed hit of the week 6/6/16 - Fleetwood Mac's "As Long As You Follow"...

"As Long As You Follow" - Fleetwood Mac
from the album Greatest Hits (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #43

This week's 'robbed hit' comes from the veteran British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac, who after spending a chunk of the early 80s working on various solo projects, came back together in 1987 for the successful Tango In The Night album, which spun off five hit singles, two of which reached the American pop top-5 ("Big Love", "Little Lies"). However when it came time to tour behind the album, personal problems between bandmates erupted yet again, causing guitarist/co-lead singer Lindsey Buckingham to leave quite acrimoniously. Still going ahead with the tour, the band hired singer/guitarist Billy Burnette (who worked on Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie's solo projects), and lead axeman Richie Vito (who had played with John McVie) to fill to very large gap left by Lindsey's departure. During this "regroup" period, the band released a Greatest Hits album, with two new recordings to entice the faithful; Stevie Nicks' "No Questions Asked", which was a minor rock radio hit at #37, and Christine McVie's lead single "As Long As You Follow". Written by Christine with her husband Eddie Quintela, the ultra-soft rock hit had the sonics of a Christmas-time selection, and the snowy video contributed to that. Perhaps that also gave the single a pre-determined shelf-life...

While "As Long As You Follow" climbed all the way to #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, the single stalled right under the pop top-40 in the U.S. at #43 in January of 1989. The song also made it to #15 on their Mainstream Rock chart as well. Internationally, the record went to #19 in Ireland, #35 in both Australia and New Zealand, and was a minor hit at #66 in the UK.