Fleetwood Mac keyboardist/singer/songwriter Christine McVie passed away earlier today at a hospital in the U.K. after a brief illness. She was 79. No cause of death has yet been reported.
Christine Anne Perfect was born in the village of Bouth in the English county of Lancashire. Her parents were Cyril Perfect, a concert violinist and music lecturer and the former Beatrice Reese, a medium and psychic. She studied classical piano from ages 11 to 15, but started to play rock and roll after her older brother John came home with a book of Fats Domino songs. She studied sculpture at an art school in Birmingham for five years, during which she met musicians Stan Webb (guitar) and Andy Sylvester (bass). After moving to London and working as a window-dresser for a department store, she joined their band Chicken Shack as a keyboardist-singer and appeared on their first two albums.
In 1968, Perfect played piano on Fleetwood Mac's second album, Mr. Wonderful as a guest musician. In 1969, she married their bass player John McVie, left Chicken shack, and played keyboards on a few tracks on their third album Then Play On. In 1970, she recorded her first solo album Christine Perfect, contributed uncredited backing vocals and keyboards on Fleetwood Mac's fourth album Kiln House, and joined the band for the ensuing tour. She stayed with Fleetwood Mac through numerous albums and personnel changes until 1998, but rejoined them in 2014. She recorded two more solo albums, Christine McVie in 1984 and In the Meantime in 2004, and the duet album Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie in 2017, with Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.
Christine and John McVie divorced in 1976, but stayed friends and musical partners. She dated drummer/keyboardist/singer Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys from 1979 to 1982. She married Portuguese keyboardist/songwriter Eddy Quintela in 1986. They collaborated to write some songs which Fleetwood Mac recorded, and divorced in 2003.
Naturally, I must include a few songs from Christine. My favorite of hers is Think About Me from the 1979 album Tusk. Buckingham shows off his vocal range on the "every once in a while" lyrics.
One of her most popular songs is the optimist rocker Don't Stop, from the 1977 album Rumours, on which Buckingham sings the first verse. This video shows a live version.
One of Christine McVie's signature songs was Songbird, also from Rumours, which often closed out Fleetwood Mac's concerts. On the studio version, her piano and Buckingham's faint guitar are the only instruments. On a personal note, I performed this one at Virginia Tech's coffeehouse and later after graduating, each time on piano with a female vocalist.
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