Happy Birthday to Stevie Nicks — and a Plea for the ‘Buckingham Nicks’ Album to Finally Be Reissued

Note: A version of this post originally ran in May 2020 in honor of Stevie Nicks and her birthday — but it’s still relevant, as the Buckingham/Nicks album has yet to be reissued!

Stevie Nicks … there’s only one like her in music history, truly, and today, May 26, the legendary singer/songwriter celebrates her 73rd birthday.

From the 1973 album Buckingham Nicks, a collaboration with her then-boyfriend, Lindsey Buckingham, that predated both musicians joining Fleetwood Mac two years later (and setting in action an unparalleled run of hit albums and classic music with the band) to her solo career and beyond, Nicks has forged her own path in the music business and culture as a whole.

Buckingham Nicks is something of an odd little record, especially through the lens of time. Recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and mostly ignored and unnoticed when it was initially released, the album — which, of course, is a relic of music history now that both musicians became legends with Fleetwood Mac shortly after it was created — has yet to be officially remastered or reissued, and it is not available on digital streaming platforms.

That’s rather unheard of in our era of immediacy and everything available all the time when we want it, and it only adds to the allure and mythical status of that vibrant bit of music laid down by Stevie and Lindsey.

Hopefully, one day in the not-too-distant future, Buckingham Nicks will be given the treatment it deserves and be reissued to the masses — as a chronicling of the roots of the version of Fleetwood Mac that would become an institution for decades to come.

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, Nicks’ social media pages were a welcome source of inspiration and uplift, too. In late March, the throes of lockdown and uncertainty enveloping the country, Stevie Nicks posted a message on Instagram, updating her fans about how she was keeping busy during stay-at-home orders — namely, drawing, painting and listening to Harry Styles’ 2019 album Fine Line:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-FPLvtDxpy/

She also shouted-out the new record from Vanessa Carlton as among her favorites during that span:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-QadcsDWEZ/

Perhaps most amazingly, Stevie Nicks later revealed that she had finally, for the very first time, witnessed a dove singing. Yes, she’d sung about the concept before in her hit solo single “Edge of Seventeen,” but somehow the singer had not actually seen it happen in her life.

Until now:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-r0EfxjLYQ/

In late 2020, Stevie Nicks reacted to the TikTok video of Nathan Apocada’s “Dreams”- soundtracked skateboard ride with a fun social media post of her own — capitalizing on the flurry of attention thrown at the classi Fleetwood Mac song after the social media sensation went viral:

Afternoon vibe. Lace 'em up! #Dreams #FleetwoodMac #CranberryDreams @420dogface208 https://t.co/eg5f54bu0b pic.twitter.com/Mj1clEpnas

— Stevie Nicks (@StevieNicks) October 13, 2020

She also collaborated with Miley Cyrus on Cyrus’ album Plastic Hearts, which was led by the “Edge of Seventeen”-sampling single “Midnight Sky.”

Nicks also turned up on a special remix of the track:

All this to say: Stevie Nicks has been relatively active on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, so you might as well give her a follow if you weren’t already doing so.

Happy birthday, Stevie Nicks!