Mr. Wonderful
Studio album by
Fleetwood Mac
Released23 August 1968
RecordedApril 1968
StudioCBS, London
GenreBlues rock[1]
Length41:30
LabelBlue Horizon
ProducerMike Vernon
Fleetwood Mac chronology
Fleetwood Mac
(1968) 		Mr. Wonderful
(1968) 		Then Play On
(1969)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [2]

Mr. Wonderful is the second studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 23 August 1968. This all-blues album was broadly similar to their debut album, albeit with some changes to personnel and recording method. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system, rather than plugged into the board.[3] A horn section was introduced and Christine Perfect (later Christine McVie) of Chicken Shack was featured on keyboards. The album took a total of four days to record.[4] In the US, the album was not issued under the name Mr. Wonderful, though around half of the tracks appeared on English Rose.

The band originally wanted the album to be titled A Good Length, which would have featured an "obvious phallic symbol" on the album's front cover according to Fleetwood, although this idea was rejected. Udder Sucker was the next proposed title, and Fleetwood even traveled to his godmother's farm to take a photo underneath a cow for the cover art, but the record label also turned this idea down. Fleetwood instead posed naked on the cover of Mr. Wonderful.[4]

An expanded version of Mr. Wonderful was included in the box set The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions. The song "Lazy Poker Blues" was covered by Status Quo on their 1971 album Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon.

Reception

Compared to the huge success of the band's first album, Fleetwood Mac, this follow-up received rather muted critical reviews: AllMusic described it as "a disappointment". Four of the songs, "Dust My Broom", "Doctor Brown", "Need Your Love Tonight" and "Coming Home", all begin with an identical Elmore James riff. "Evenin' Boogie" was the first instrumental released by Fleetwood Mac.

Sputnik Music describes the style as "vocally conservative, sticking to gruff mannerisms, and it often sounds like Green is drunkedly wandering through the music. The production adds further insult to injury, as it muffles his voice rather than amplifying it and makes the instruments sound murky."[5]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Stop Messin' Round"Peter Green, C.G. Adams2:22
2."I've Lost My Baby"Jeremy Spencer4:18
3."Rollin' Man"Green, Adams2:54
4."Dust My Broom"Elmore James, Robert Johnson2:54
5."Love That Burns"Green, Adams5:04
6."Doctor Brown"J. T. Brown, W. Glasco3:48
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Need Your Love Tonight"Spencer3:29
2."If You Be My Baby"Green, Adams3:54
3."Evenin' Boogie"Spencer2:42
4."Lazy Poker Blues"Green, Adams2:37
5."Coming Home"James2:41
6."Trying So Hard to Forget"Green, Adams4:47

Personnel

Fleetwood Mac

Additional personnel

Production

Charts

1968 weekly chart performance for Mr. Wonderful
Chart (1968) Peak
position
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[6] 6
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[7] 8
UK Albums (OCC)[8] 10

References

  1. ^ "The Top 30 British Blues Rock Albums Of All Time". Classic Rock. Future plc. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  2. ^ Mr. Wonderful at AllMusic
  3. ^ Mick Fleetwood (30 October 2014). Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-1-4447-5326-4.
  4. ^ a b Fleetwood, Mick; Davis, Stephen (1990). Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac. New York: William Morrow and Company. pp. 60–62. ISBN 0-688-06647-X.
  5. ^ "Fleetwood Mac - Mr. Wonderful (album review 2)". Sputnikmusic.com. 26 July 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  6. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  7. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Fleetwood Mac – Mr. Wonderful". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
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