Pop Song 253 of 500 'Songbird' Fleetwood Mac 1977

Pop Song 253 of 500 'Songbird' Fleetwood Mac 1977

Christine McVie RIP 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022

McVie wrote "Songbird" in half an hour around midnight, but didn't have anyone around to record it. To ensure she did not forget the chord structure and melody, she remained awake the entire night. The next day, McVie played the song for producer Ken Caillat at the Sausalito Record Plant.

Caillat loved the track and suggested she record it alone in a concert style approach. Their first venue of choice, the Berkeley Community Theatre, was unavailable, so the band instead booked the Zellerbach Auditorium for March 3, 1976. To create the appropriate ambience, Caillat ordered a bouquet of flowers to place on McVie's piano. He then requested three spotlights to illuminate the flowers from above. When McVie arrived at the auditorium, the house lights were dimmed so her attention was immediately brought to the illuminated flowers on the piano.

For the recording session, 15 microphones were placed around the auditorium to capture the performance.[3] The recording session went into the next morning due to the difficulty of recording the song live in one take.[4] Lindsey Buckingham strummed an acoustic guitar offstage to keep the tempo.