Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Landslide" is a song by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, written and performed by Stevie Nicks. The song was first featured on the band's self-titled album Fleetwood Mac (1975). The original recording also appears on the compilation albums 25 Years – The Chain (1992), The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002) and 50 Years – Don't Stop (2018), while a live version was released as a single 23 years later from the live reunion album The Dance (1997). "Landslide" reached No. 51 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Landslide" was certified gold in October 2009 for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States. According to Nielsen Soundscan, "Landslide" sold 2,093,186 copies in the United States as of 2017.

In 2021, the song was listed at No. 163 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The song is written and composed in the key of B-flat major and is set in a time signature (alla breve) with a tempo of 80 beats per minute.

History
Nicks has said that she wrote the song while contemplating either going back to school or continuing on professionally with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks wrote "Landslide" while she was financially supporting both herself and Buckingham by taking up jobs as both a waitress and a cleaning lady. Following the release of their debut album Buckingham Nicks, they had been dropped from their recording contract by Polydor Records before they could release a follow-up. Nicks wrote the song while visiting Aspen, Colorado, sitting in someone's living room "looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us ... at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways."

The song is one of Fleetwood Mac's most frequently performed during tours. Nicks has sung it on every Fleetwood Mac tour since joining the band, with the exception of the Shake the Cage tour, and has performed it on all of her own solo tours from 2005 onwards. A live performance of "Landslide" recorded on 27 June 1980 at the London Wembley Arena was included on Live.

While "Landslide" was never issued as a single on its initial release in 1975, Fleetwood Mac did release a live version from Fleetwood Mac's 1997 album The Dance; it peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's 24th entry on the chart. "Landslide" also reached the top 30 on both the US and Canadian adult contemporary charts. Other live recordings of "Landslide" also appear on Live in Boston (2004), Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007) (with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), The Soundstage Sessions (2009), Soundstage, and the Live in Chicago DVD.

Critical reception
In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone wrote that Nicks seemed "lost and out of place" on "Landslide" and that her voice sounded "callow and mannered". Retrospective reviews have been more positive, with certain publications such as The Guardian and Paste ranking "Landslide" amongst the band's best work. AllMusic described "Landslide" as a traditional song "built on a very simple (and very effective) country-folk-inspired chord progression".

Personnel

 * Stevie Nicks – vocals
 * Lindsey Buckingham – guitars

The Smashing Pumpkins
Alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins recorded an acoustic arrangement of the song that was featured as the B-side to their 1994 single "Disarm" and later on their B-side collection Pisces Iscariot.

The group's arrangement went on to be one of the rock band's most-beloved tracks and even had the approval of Nicks herself. As she told fans during a 1998 online chat with SonicNet, "There's nothing more pleasing to a songwriter than [someone else] doing one of their songs. ['Landslide'] also led me to being friends with Billy Corgan and the possibility that we'll work together," she said of the Smashing Pumpkins frontman. "Over this song, there's been this incredible connection ... he reached out ... I believe that my poetry is really meant for everyone, no matter what age."

The new version was a hit, making it to the top three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States that year and No. 30 on the US Airplay charts. The song was also featured on the US version of their greatest hits album Rotten Apples. It was later used in the TV show Alias on season 1 in the episode Page 47.

Dixie Chicks
American country music group the Dixie Chicks released a cover of "Landslide" on 26 August 2002 as the second single from their 2002 album, Home. Lead singer Natalie Maines said she was attracted to the song because she was then the same age that Nicks was when she first performed it. The band performed the song with Nicks at VH1 Divas Las Vegas in 2002. The music video for the song was directed by Jim Gable and edited by Scott C. Wilson.

This version, featuring the band's two- and three-part harmonies, reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. On the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, it is the band's only number-one single. After Maines publicly criticised President George W. Bush and the imminent Allied invasion of Iraq, triggering a backlash, it fell to number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in one week and left the chart a week later.

Outside the United States, "Landslide" reached number two in Canada and became the band's only top-10 hit in Australia, where it reached number six. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

Track listings
US and Canadian CD single
 * 1) "Landslide" (album version) – 3:49
 * 2) "Landslide" (the Sheryl Crow remix) – 3:47

Australian CD single
 * 1) "Landslide" (the Sheryl Crow remix)
 * 2) "Landslide"
 * 3) "Landslide" (live from the Kodak Theater)
 * 4) "Landslide" (video version)

European maxi-CD single
 * 1) "Landslide" (album version) – 3:49
 * 2) "Long Time Gone" – 4:08
 * 3) "Landslide" (the Sheryl Crow remix) – 3:47
 * 4) "Landslide" (the Sheryl Crow remix—video) – 3:45

UK CD single
 * 1) "Landslide" (the Sheryl Crow remix) – 3:47
 * 2) "Landslide" (album version) – 3:49
 * 3) "Landslide" (live from the Kodak Theater) – 4:07
 * 4) "Landslide" (the Sheryl Crow remix—video version) – 3:45

Glee version
The cast of Fox Broadcasting Company's musical television program, Glee, performed the song in Season 2, Episode 15, "Sexy". Gwyneth Paltrow, Naya Rivera, and Heather Morris are featured on vocals for this version. Stevie Nicks attended the filming of the song and stated that it was a "beautiful mix" of the original and the Chicks version.

Other cover versions

 * Antony Hegarty recorded the song for the tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac.
 * Harry Styles performed this song with Nicks during his show at the Troubadour in May 2017.
 * The Japanese House recorded a cover of this song for Spotify Singles, released 26 July 2017.
 * Parodied by Lucy Lawless (in character as Stevie Nicks) in 17 October 1998, episode of Saturday Night Live.
 * On 12 March 2019, Australian pop singer Conrad Sewell recorded a cover of the song for Australian bank Westpac, in a campaign designed to target families dealing with separation and the resulting financial consequences. Branding in Asia described the rendition as "powerful", while The Music Network's Jake Challenor praised Sewell's performance as "soulful and emotionally charged".
 * Gus Dapperton released a cover in 2022 to mark his signing to Warner Brothers Records.
 * Brittany Snow (as "Bobby-Lynne") and Scott Mescudi (as "Jackson") performed a cover in the Ti West period slasher film X (2022), which is set in 1979, four years after the original song had been released.
 * Stacey Kent released a cover version on her 2007 album Breakfast On The Morning Tram
 * Norwegian singer Dagny covered the song for Freeform comedy-drama The Bold Type during its second season