The Pious Bird of Good Omen

The Pious Bird of Good Omen is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1969. It consists of their first four non-album UK singles and their B-sides, one track from their first album Fleetwood Mac, two tracks from their second album Mr. Wonderful, and two tracks by the blues artist Eddie Boyd with backing by members of Fleetwood Mac. These came from Boyd's album 7936 South Rhodes.

The title of the album is a phrase found in an 1817 gloss (marginal note) to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 epic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The phrase refers to the albatross killed in the poem ("The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen"). Its use as an album title as well as the album art is a sly wink to the featuring of the band's number 1 UK hit "Albatross".

The Pious Bird of Good Omen was not released in the US. The closest US equivalent is the English Rose compilation album, released in December 1968 and sharing four songs with Pious Bird.

In 2002, the album was repackaged by Sony BMG as Greatest Hits with cover art very closely resembling the 1971 Greatest Hits album, and with "Shake Your Moneymaker" and "Love That Burns" added to the track listing. In 2004, when Fleetwood Mac's Blue Horizon era albums were remastered, Pious Bird was reconfigured to remove tracks from the previous two Mac albums and the Boyd tracks, which were replaced by archival recordings from the 1967 and 1968 period.

Reception
Reaction to the album has been highly positive. It was described as "excellent" by the Rolling Stone Album Guide. TeamRock ranked the album in the "20 Greatest Blues Albums: 1967-70".

2004 release

 * * Bonus track

Credits
Fleetwood Mac
 * Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica
 * Jeremy Spencer – vocals, slide guitar, piano
 * Danny Kirwan – vocals, electric guitar (on side 2, tracks 1 and 4)
 * John McVie – bass guitar
 * Mick Fleetwood – drums

Additional musicians
 * Eddie Boyd – vocals, piano (on side 1, track 4 and side 2, track 3)

Technical staff
 * Mike Vernon – producer
 * Mike Ross – engineer

2004 release
Fleetwood Mac
 * Peter Green – vocals (except on tracks 3, 4, 5, and 7), guitar (except on tracks 3 and 4), harmonica (on tracks 2 and 3)
 * Jeremy Spencer – vocals (on tracks 3 and 4), guitar (on tracks 3 and 4), piano (on track 4)
 * Danny Kirwan – vocals (on track 8), guitar (on track 5, 7, and 8)
 * John McVie – bass guitar (except on track 2, 3, and 8)
 * Mick Fleetwood – drums (except on track 8)
 * Bob Brunning – bass guitar (on track 3)

Additional musicians
 * Mickey "Guitar" Baker – string arrangement (on track 1)
 * Steve Gregory – tenor saxophone (on track 10 and 11)
 * Christine Perfect – piano (on tracks 9, 10, and 11)
 * Terry Noonan – director of unidentified strings and horns (on track 1)

Technical staff
 * Mike Vernon – producer
 * Mike Ross – engineer