Greatest Hits (1971 Fleetwood Mac album)

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac released on CBS Records in the United Kingdom in 1971. The album assembles the band's hit singles in the UK covering the period from the band's beginning in 1968 to 1971, mostly in its original incarnation led by guitarist Peter Green. It peaked at No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart.

Background and content
Part of the second British blues boom of the late 1960s, during that time Fleetwood Mac enjoyed six British hit singles, collated here along with one non-charting single, two B-sides, and three album tracks. The band's UK single "Black Magic Woman" received greater exposure in the US when it was covered by the American group Santana, who placed their version in the Billboard Top 40.

In 1989 Sony BMG used the Greatest Hits title and 1971 album cover for an expanded reissue of the 1969 compilation album The Pious Bird of Good Omen. In 1988 Fleetwood Mac released an identically-titled but completely different Greatest Hits album, which concentrates exclusively on post-1975 material and has no tracks in common with the 1971 album.

The album cover photo is a live shot of the late 1967/early 1968 line-up of Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. The album gatefold shows a full-size photo of the late 1970/early 1971 line up of the band without Green, with Danny Kirwan and new member Christine McVie (née Perfect) alongside Spencer, Fleetwood and McVie. "Dragonfly" is the only song on the album that was recorded by this line-up. Greatest Hits was issued on CD in the 1980s but soon went out of print, and has effectively been replaced by the 2002 compilation The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac on the Sony International label, which now owns the Columbia/CBS catalogue. It was reissued on vinyl in 2010.

"The Green Manalishi", "Oh Well", "Rattlesnake Shake", and "Dragonfly" were licensed from Warner Bros. Records.

Track listing
All tracks written by Peter Green except where noted.

Personnel

 * Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica
 * Jeremy Spencer – vocals, slide guitar, piano, maracas
 * Danny Kirwan – vocals, guitar
 * John McVie – bass guitar
 * Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion
 * Christine McVie – piano