181: Influential Women Part 5–Stevie Nicks

One of the things that always amazed me about the songs that became big hits in the pop era between the 1950s and the 1990s was the sheer variety of musical styles that topped the charts. When doing research for this show I went into a bit of a spiral looking at Billboard charts for the late 1970s, and I got stuck on the summer of 1978, with the amazing wealth of songs that were in the top 20 at the time. Some of the songs, of course have fallen into the mists of time because they don’t get the oldies airplay anymore, and that’s a shame because there’s still some very good stuff there. This was the Top 20 chart for the week ending August 19, 1978 according to The Real American Top 40 Wiki page: Commodores – Three Times A Lady (↔) Frankie Valli – Grease (↔) Donna Summer – Last Dance (↔) Rolling Stones – Miss You (↔) Foreigner – Hot Blooded (↔) A Taste Of Honey – Boogie Oogie Oogie (↔) Pablo Cruise – Love Will Find A Way (↔) Barry Manilow – Copacabana (↔) Walter Egan – Magnet And Steel (↔) Andy Gibb – An Everlasting Love (↔) Olivia Newton-John – Hopelessly Devoted To You (↔) Joe Walsh – Life’s Been Good (↔) Toby Beau – My Angel Baby (↔) Atlanta Rhythm Section – I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight (↔) Evelyn King – Shame (↑4) Exile – Kiss You All Over (↑2) Steve Martin – King Tut (↔) Chris Rea – Fool (If You Think It’s Over) (↑3) Earth Wind & Fire – Got To Get You Into My Life (↑10) Jackson Browne – The Load-Out/Stay (↔) Pretty much all of these songs, I wouldn’t mind listening to again. And that’s not always the case with songs at this level of the charts. (“Having My Baby,” anyone?) We have here a mix of disco, R&B, retro pop, ballads, a live track, a novelty song, a soundtrack title,  about a half-dozen well-established acts and three one-hit wonders (I’m not counting Steve Martin there because it’s a novelty). And they’re all at varying levels of “good”! All of this is prologue to the fact that Stevie Nicks was in the thick of the music industry for a three-year period, either as a writer, a lead or a backup singer. All of which cemented her in the musical firmament. If she’d done nothing else after 1979, she’d still be fondly remembered. But in addition to being all the things above, she was also a muse for several artists, much of which we’re covering in this episode. I bumped into some problems with regard to quantifying songs about her, but I did my best and I’d be curious to know what you may think I’ve overlooked, because there were a few I did research on and got nowhere.