STEVIE, WONDER WOMAN

"I still look up, when you walk in a room."

--Stevie Nicks, "Angel" (1979, from Fleetwood Mac's Tusk)

Lindsay Buckingham and Christine McVie contributed just as many great songs to Fleetwood Mac, but few singer-songwriters of the rock or any other era has captured longing in the heart as eloquently and vividly as Stevie Nicks (above, striking a Madonna pose years before Madonna did, and below, performing "Angel" on Fleetwood Mac's 1979 Tusk tour). It hardly matters that "Angel" is perhaps the most overused song title ever (Madonna took her own cherub serenade Top 5 several years later). Stevie turned 60 in May. Where did the time go? And where is her Timbaland collaboration? Seriously, though, I'd like to see Fleetwood Mac's classic line up get together for one more spin (just an album, no tour necessary) before they start to enter their septuagenarian years. If we're never going to get that ABBA reunion for which we've been waiting a quarter of a century--to reference that other '70s mixed-gender pop-supergroup-as-soap-opera--Fleetwood Mac redux redux will more than do.



When I wrote my last post on should-have-been-hits, I left off some more than worthy '80s singles that missed the Top 40--or the Hot 100 altogether. Here are 11 others with links to where you can check them out:

1. Smokey Robinson: "And I Don't Love You" (1984, from Essar)
2. Mick Jagger: "Ruthless People" (1986, from the Ruthless People soundtrack)
3. Bee Gees: "You Win Again" (1987, from E.S.P.)
4. Depeche Mode: "Never Let Me Down Again" (1987, from Music for the Masses)
5. Eurythmics: "I Need a Man" (1987, from Savage)
6. Prince: "If I Was Your Girlfriend" (1987, from Sign o' the Times)
7. Pet Shop Boys: "Left to My Own Devices" (1988, from Introspective)
8. The Fixx: "Driven Out" (1989, from Calm Animals)
9. Gladys Knight: "License to Kill" (1989, from the License to Kill soundtrack)
10. Liza Minnelli: "Losing My Mind" (1989, from Results)
11. Sheena Easton: "101" (1989, from The Lover in Me)