The young couple Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks met each other for the first time while they were both attending Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, south of San Francisco in 1966. They performed together in the Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band since 1968. Then in 1972 they moved to Los Angeles.
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| Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band in 1969 |
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| Performing on a wedding in 1971 |
In 1972 a young couple were now living in a modest appartment in Los Angeles. Stevie Nicks was a waitress with a dreamy voice and Lindsey Buckingham a guitarist who strives for perfection. They took an Ampex tape machine with them to record some demos: "Frozen Love", "Races are Run", and "Crystal". Stevie worked to make a living for the couple. The demos gave them a record deal with Polydor Records to record an album in 1973.
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| Stevie Nicks in 1972 |
They release a folkrock album titled "Buckingham Nicks" in that same year. Stevie wrote the song "Long Distance Winner" about living together with Lindsey. Lindsey came up with 2 instrumentals: "Django" and "Stephanie". The first one was written by pianist John Lewis in the 1950s to honor jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and the second was written by Lindsey himself. Polydor didn't do much to promote the album. Stevie discovered it wasn't available in record shops or played on the radio. They toured to promote their album and also played some new songs: "Rhiannon", "Blue Letter" and "Monday Morning" which would all appear on the Fleetwood Mac album, along with "I Don't Want to Know" which later appeared on Rumours. They also performed a song called "Sorcerer" which remained unreleased. And finally the album flopped and Polydor Records dropped the couple.
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| Fleetwood Mac in 1975 with Buckingham Nicks |
But then drummer Mick Fleetwood heared "Frozen Love" of them by accident in the Sound City Studios. Fleetwood Mac is again without a guitarist. So they wanted Lindsey as their new guitarist on one condition: That Nicks comes along. Lindsey met Mick Fleetwood and Christine and John McVie at the Mexican restaurant El Carmen, with Nicks later joining the group after her waitress shift at Clementine's, still wearing her flapper costume.
The rest is history.
Fleetwood Mac were at their peak with the duo joining the band. The album "Rumours" from 1977 is legendary because of the 2 couples in the band and their break-ups and tensions working together and the use of alcohol and drugs. The album "Buckingham Nicks" became a wanted collector's item for Fleetwood Mac fans. Because it resembles the music of Fleetwood Mac a lot and their influence was very big within the band.
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| Coloured album cover |
The tensions between Buckingham and Nicks was also why it took so long before the album was worldwide released again. Also there where problems with copyrights and so on. The album "Buckingham Nicks" wasn't released on CD for 5 decades. Finally in september 2025 the album was remastered and released on both CD and vinyl.
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| Original album cover |
Buckingham Nicks (1973)
Crying in the Night / Stephanie / Without a Leg to Stand On / Crystal / Long Distance Winner / Don't Let Me Down Again / Django / Races Are Run / Lola (My Love) / Frozen Love
AUDIO/VIDEO
Frozen Love
Long Distance Winner
Races Are Run
Monday Morning (Buckingham Nicks live)
I Don't Want To Know (Buckingham Nicks live)