Sat Eye Candy: Christine McVie

Christine Anne Perfect was born on July 12, 1943 in rural North West England. By the ’70s she would be a household name around the world as Christine McVie, the original blonde songstress and earth mama in Fleetwood Mac. Both bluesy and classy, McVie joined the Mac in 1970 as a pinch hitter on keyboards and vocals after Peter Green‘s faculties took a holiday. Initially, it was her marriage to then-husband and band co-founder John McVie that provided her in but in short course she revealed herself as perhaps the most natural pop craftsperson in the group, a role that continued even after the beyond-all-reason success of the Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks years. Christine McVie was as an architect and crucial element of the cultural and commercial impact of 1975’s Fleetwood Mac, 1976’s era-defining Rumours and 1979’s cocaine fueled masterpiece, Tusk. While less fiery than Nicks or Buckingham, she always delivered as a composer and performer, working her humid, smoky voice around some of the most unguarded, lovely moments mainstream radio has ever known.

We blow a virtual noisemaker for Christine on her 65th birthday today. Though she left Fleetwood Mac in 1998 for a quieter life away from studios and tour buses, we wish her many happy afternoons at the piano, charming songbirds from their trees and brightening the air with her music.

Often pegged as “the sweet one,” McVie was also the co-writer of dark-edged classics like “World Turning,” performed here on ye olde Midnight Special. Dig Lindsey’s nasty guitar antics and Mick’s nifty hand drumming.

.

Here’s a spot of McVie inflected blues from 1975.

.

“You Make Loving Fun” had to be fun to sing with your ex-husband playing bass. McVie reportedly wrote the song about Fleetwood Mac’s lighting guy, who curled her toes before and during the Rumours tour.

.

While mainly identified as a singer-songwriter, Christine’s keys provide much of the texture and mood of Mac tunes. To wit, the creepy tension her playing gives this superb live version of “The Chain.”

.

Here’s a vintage promo clip for “Don’t Stop” that shows the group in all their mid ’70s glory.

.

We conclude with one of the prettiest damn songs of all time, “Songbird,” from the 1982 Mirage tour in Los Angeles

.

Don’t forget, you can eyeball video sweetness 24/7 with JamBase TV.