Fleetwood Mac’s turbulent history has inspired some of rock’s most enduring songs, but one of the band’s biggest hits of the 1980s had an unusual journey from the recording studio to the stage.
“Big Love,” released in 1987, became a Top 5 hit in the United States. Yet, despite its success, the song wouldn’t make its live debut with Fleetwood Mac until 10 years later, when guitarist Lindsey Buckingham returned to the group.
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Lindsey Buckingham Wrote ‘Big Love’ With a Different Plan in Mind
Released as the lead single from Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night album, “Big Love” was written by Buckingham during a period when he was working on material for a solo project. When Fleetwood Mac reconvened to record a new album in the mid-1980s, the guitarist brought the song into the group’s repertoire.
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The track became a showcase for Buckingham’s meticulous production and distinctive guitar work. Its clipped, rhythmic guitar parts, layered instrumentation, and suggestive vocals gave it an unmistakable sound. The song even featured what Buckingham described as a “lustful mid-to-up tempo number featuring love grunts.”
There was a studio trick behind those breathy sounds, too: The supposedly male and female vocalizations were both Buckingham’s voice, with one electronically altered to create the illusion of a second singer.
Fleetwood Mac’s Turmoil Kept the Hit Off the Setlist
“Big Love” was a major success, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987. But the band’s internal tensions complicated its future onstage.
Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac shortly before the group’s tour in support of Tango in the Night. Guitarists Billy Burnette and Rick Vito joined the touring lineup, but “Big Love” didn’t make the setlist.
The song’s intricate arrangement presented a particular challenge. Its sound was so closely associated with Buckingham’s guitar playing, vocals, and studio production that reproducing it without him would have required more than simply dividing up his guitar parts.
Lindsey Buckingham Reinvented ‘Big Love’ With an Acoustic Guitar
When Buckingham returned to Fleetwood Mac for the band’s 1997 reunion, “Big Love” finally became part of the group’s live show. But rather than re-create the original studio arrangement note for note, he transformed it into a stunning, high-energy acoustic performance.
The new arrangement put Buckingham’s intricate fingerpicking front and center, with his guitar supplying the rhythm and much of the song’s intensity. It was a striking reinvention of a track originally known for its layered studio sound. And it was well worth the wait.
Buckingham had already performed the acoustic version on his solo tours in the early 1990s, but Fleetwood Mac fans got to see it in the band’s live repertoire when the classic lineup reunited for The Dance in 1997.
The performance became one of the standout moments of the reunion, demonstrating how a song that had once seemed difficult to reproduce onstage could become an electrifying live showcase.
More than a decade after its release, “Big Love” had found a second life—not by re-creating the recording, but by stripping it down to the guitarist at its center.
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