Christine Perfect (album)

Christine Perfect is the debut solo album of former Chicken Shack keyboardist and singer Christine Perfect (later known as Christine McVie). The album was released just after Perfect had left Chicken Shack, but before she joined Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1970, the album was originally meant to be titled I'm on My Way as evidenced on copies of the pre-LP single release "I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around)". The album was re-released in 1976 as The Legendary Christine Perfect Album, and in 2008 as Christine Perfect - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions. Ironically, its name notwithstanding, the 2008 reissue is missing one song, i.e. her cover of "I'd Rather Go Blind," although it does include several bonus tracks.

Background
Most of the songs on the album were performed by the Christine Perfect band, which included Top Topham and Rick Hayward on guitars; Martin Dunsford on bass, and Chris Harding on drums. Fleetwood Mac’s Danny Kirwan and John McVie perform on “When You Say,” Christine’s cover of Danny Kirwan’s 1969 song from Then Play On. The album also contained the Etta James song "I'd Rather Go Blind", which had earlier been a hit single for Chicken Shack. Since both Chicken Shack and Perfect were on the same record label, Blue Horizon, the exact same Chicken Shack recording of "I'd Rather Go Blind" was included on her solo album.

The entire album (with the exception of "I'd Rather Go Blind") and the rest of the Christine Perfect sessions while on the Blue Horizon label were made available on the CD compilation Christine Perfect - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions (2008). This compilation included an album outtake "Tell Me You Need Me" written by Perfect. The compilation also included three tracks recorded on November 24, 1969, for the BBC Dave Lee Travis Sunday Show. "Hey Baby" (originally recorded with Chicken Shack during the O.K. Ken? sessions), "It's You I Miss" and "Gone Into the Sun". These recordings for the BBC were made while finishing the debut solo album and therefore were aired before the albums release in 1970.

In a 1980 interview with Contemporary Keyboard, McVie expressed embarrassment about the album's existence and felt that some of the songs lacked the artistic maturity she would later attain during her time in Fleetwood Mac. "When I made that record, I wasn't really sure about my talent, or about what direction I wanted to go in musically. There were people all around who were trying to make me into this kind of a singer or that kind of a singer. Mike Vernon was a great help in many ways -- I'm playing music now partly because of what he did to get me started -- but even he was pushing me into becoming sort of a black-style English singer. I didn't really feel artistically together until I joined Fleetwood Mac."

Personnel

 * Christine Perfect – vocals, keyboards
 * Top Topham, Rick Hayward – guitar
 * Martin Dunsford – bass guitar
 * Chris Harding – drums
 * John Bennett, Derek Wadsworth, Terry Noonan – arrangements
 * Danny Kirwan – guitar (7)
 * John McVie – bass guitar (7)
 * Stan Webb – guitar (6)
 * Andy Silvester – bass guitar (5, 6)
 * Dave Bidwell – drums (6)

Release

 * CD	Christine Perfect Sony Music Distribution	 1995
 * CD	Christine Perfect Sony Music Distribution	 2005
 * LP	The Legendary Christine Perfect Album [Sire] CBS Records / Sire	 2008
 * Digi	Christine Perfect [UK] Blue Horizon (record label)	 2011