1984 studio album by Christine McVie
Christine McVie is the second solo album by the English musician, singer, and songwriter Christine McVie, released in 1984.
It was McVie's first solo recording since her 1970 self-titled release (under her maiden name). It features two singles that reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Got a Hold on Me" and "Love Will Show Us How", which reached numbers 10 and 30, respectively. The album itself also achieved modest success in the United States, peaking at number 26 and spending 23 weeks on the Billboard 200.[2] In the UK, the album reached number 58 on the UK Albums Chart.
The cover art was shot in Wiltshire, two hours outside of London. McVie arrived at the location at six in the morning, although the photo was not taken until three in the afternoon for the purpose of getting optimal lighting. Some studio shots were arranged for the single sleeves.[3]
Background
On February 5, 1983, Christine McVie revealed that she was assembling songs for a solo album with the intention of releasing it by Christmas.[4] Although McVie previously produced one of Robbie Patton's solo albums, she still felt unprepared to tackle that responsibility on her own album, so she hired Titelman to fulfill that role.[5] McVie did not expect the recording sessions to begin until June 1983 as producer Russ Titelman was occupied with Paul Simon's Hearts and Bones during the first half of the year.[4]
The majority of the album was recorded in Montreux, Switzerland over the span of three months with additional work taking place in the UK. Following two weeks of initial recording in Switzerland, the band took a brief break while McVie fleshed out some lyrics. McVie then traveled to Steve Winwood's house to work on "Ask Anybody", after which the rest of her studio band arrived to spend approximately five days recording additional instrumentation.[6] McVie wrote the lyrics to "Ask Anybody" three years prior about her relationship with Dennis Wilson,[7] but the song lacked a melody, so Winwood invited McVie to his studio "where he found just the right ambiance, the right vibes, for the words."[8] Mick Fleetwood also stopped by Winwood's studio in Gloucester to record drums.[9]
Later, McVie asked Eric Clapton to work with her on a song titled "The Challenge". "To my delight, he agreed. Like all of my songs, it's about life and remorse and rejection."[10] Clapton recorded his guitar part in roughly an hour. The next day, Ray Cooper came into the studio to overdub percussion,[6] although McVie was preoccupied with an appointment that morning and was unable to meet Cooper.[3] Following this recording session, McVie returned to Montreux and wrote "The Smile I Live For". Lindsey Buckingham stopped by the studio as did John McVie, although the latter did not play on the album in any capacity.[6] Buckingham was in London at the time looking for someone to engineer his Go Insane solo album and traveled to Montreux for a week to overdub guitars and vocals. His contributions included the guitar solo on "The Smile I Live For" and vocals on "Who's Dreaming This Dream".[3] Danny Douma, who previously opened for Fleetwood Mac on the Tusk Tour,[11] came up with the title of "Who's Dreaming This Dream" and co-wrote the song with guitarist Todd Sharp. "I'm the One" was solely written by Sharp and presented to McVie, who agreed to record the song. Sharp recalled that "I had a demo of that and played it for Christine. She really liked it and was very encouraging to me at that time with my writing".[6]
Another recording session was arranged in Gloucester where Winwood added vocals to the second verse of "One in a Million" and a Prophet synthesizer on "The Smile I Live For".[3] The album was then mixed in New York City.[6] One song, titled "Too Much is Not Enough", was recorded as a studio jam during the Christine McVie sessions, although it was not included on the album. No other unused songs were recorded; McVie stated that "We didn't over-record like some bands do - we were very compact".[7]
Live performances
McVie was initially hesitant to tour, but ultimately agreed to assemble a live band that included all members of her studio band along with her future husband Eddy Quintela and future Fleetwood Mac member Billy Burnette, who also co-wrote "So Excited". The tour included nine of the ten songs from the Christine McVie album and some deep cuts from the Fleetwood Mac catalogue such as "Just Crazy Love" and "Spare Me a Little of Your Love". McVie commented that "It's very different from when Fleetwood Mac tours. It's a lot smaller scale. We're not doing the limousine treatment this time around."[12]
Critical reception
AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine retrospectively called Christine McVie "a collection of soft rock/pop and ballads that are pleasantly melodic and ingratiating." However, he also commented that McVie's songs are too lacking in variety to be completely effective outside the context of a Fleetwood Mac album.[13] The album received generally mixed reviews from critics upon its release, mostly due to the same reasons as above. McVie addressed these criticisms in a 1987 interview with Larry Katz:
A lot of people suspected it [sounded] more like Fleetwood Mac than Fleetwood Mac. I couldn't understand for the life of me why that would be so wrong since I felt that I contributed a lot of the hit songs. Part of Fleetwood Mac's sound was mine.[18]
