Bella Donna (album)

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Bella Donna
Bella Donna cover
Studio album by Stevie Nicks
Released July 27, 1981
Recorded 1980-1981
Genre Rock
Length 41:57
Label Modern
Producer(s) Jimmy Iovine and Tom Petty
Professional reviews
Stevie Nicks chronology
Bella Donna
(1981)		 The Wild Heart
(1983)


Bella Donna is the debut solo album by American singer/songwriter and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks. Released in July 1981, the album hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts in September of that year, remaining there for one week. Bella Donna was awarded Platinum status by the RIAA three months after its release on October 7, 1981, and had sold over 5 million copies in the U.S. by 2004. Worldwide, it remains her best-selling solo album to date.

The album spawned four substantial hit singles during 1981 and 1982: the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-penned duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (#3), the Don Henley duet "Leather and Lace" (#6), the iconic "Edge of Seventeen" (#11), and country-tinged "After the Glitter Fades" (#32).

Bella Donna would mark the beginning of Nicks' trend of calling upon her many musician friends and connections to fully realise her sparse demo recordings. Along with friends Tom Petty and Don Henley, Nicks brought in famed session musician Waddy Wachtel, Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band pianist Roy Bittan, and Duck Dunn of such bands as Booker T. & the MGs. Though Bella Donna's personnel list includes some 20 musicians, the album is very much Nicks' own work, with all but one of the songs on the record written by her.

Contents

[edit] History

Nicks began work on Bella Donna in 1979, in between sessions for her third album as part of Fleetwood Mac, Tusk, released in October that year. The initial recordings for the album were in demo form, with Nicks accompanying herself on piano or electric piano for songs that were initially planned for inclusion but later shelved, such as "Lady from the Mountain," "Castaway," "Gypsy" (later resurrected for Fleetwood Mac's Mirage in 1982), and "I Sing for the Things" (later re-recorded for 1985's solo album Rock a Little).

Further demos were recorded during Fleetwood Mac's extensive ten-month world tour of 1979-80 including a notable April 1980 session with Tom Petty that ultimately went unused; following the tour's end in September 1980, work with a full band of other musicians commenced. Among the earliest songs recorded during the autumn 1980 sessions were "Blue Lamp," "Outside the Rain," and "How Still My Love."

Numerous sessions and multiple takes ensued, including various re-recordings, well into the spring of 1981, when the final songs for the album, "Edge of Seventeen" and "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," were completed. A trove of finished material for the album, with the same band of musicians, was not included on the official ten-song 42-minute album release in the summer of 1981 - "Blue Lamp," which was released instead on the Heavy Metal soundtrack later in 1981, "Gold and Braid," performed live in concert during Nicks' 1981 concert tour, and "Sleeping Angel," released on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack in 1982. "Julia" and "If You Were My Love" remain unreleased completed takes.

Nicks recorded several solo piano demos for the album that were not recorded with the full band personnel, such as "China Doll," "Christian (Spinning Wheels)," and "Stay Away," and other songs were attempted but not completed with the full band, such as "Bell Flower" and "Sanctuary." Nicks attempted some of the unreleased songs for future albums but a wealth of material from the Bella Donna era remains unreleased.

Video footage of the album sessions can be found on the DVD portion of Nicks' 2007 retrospective release Crystal Visions.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Bella Donna" (Nicks) – 5:18
  2. "Kind Of Woman" (Nicks, Tench) – 3:08
  3. "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (Petty, Campbell) – 4:02
  4. "Think About It" (Nicks, Bittan) – 3:33
  5. "After The Glitter Fades" (Nicks) – 3:27
  6. "Edge Of Seventeen" (Nicks) – 5:28
  7. "How Still My Love" (Nicks) – 3:51
  8. "Leather And Lace" (Nicks) – 3:55
  9. "Outside The Rain" (Nicks) – 4:17
  10. "The Highwayman" (Nicks) – 4:49

[edit] Personnel

Main Performer's

Guest Musicians

Session Musicians

[edit] Production

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1981 US 1
1981 UK 11
1981 AUS 1
1981 CAN 2

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1981 "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" Pop Singles 3
1981 "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" Mainstream Rock Tracks 2
1981 "Leather and Lace" Pop Singles 6
1981 "Leather and Lace" Mainstream Rock Tracks 26
1981 "Leather and Lace" Adult Contemporary 10
1982 "Edge of Seventeen" Pop Singles 11
1982 "Edge of Seventeen" Mainstream Rock Tracks 2
1982 "After the Glitter Fades" Pop Singles 32
1982 "After the Glitter Fades" Adult Contemporary 34

[edit] Miscellanea

  • On the day the album hit #1, Nicks learned her best friend since childhood, Robin Snyder Anderson, had been diagnosed with leukemia. She survived long enough to give birth to a son, Matthew. Her passing led to Nicks' first and only marriage in 1983, to Robin's widower Kim Anderson. Although an attempt to console each other's grief and care for Robin's son, the marriage fell apart three months later.
  • "Think About It" was written for Nicks' friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie.
  • The bird perched on Nicks' hand on the cover of the album is her brother Christopher's cockatoo Max. On Nicks' official website, her backing singer and sister-in-law Lori Perry-Nicks states that Max is still alive and well.
  • Waylon Jennings asked Nicks to write "Leather and Lace" for him and then-wife Jessi Colter. He and Colter's break-up led Nicks to record the song with Don Henley, but Jennings and Colter later recorded the song together despite their split.
  • The song "Edge of Seventeen" has been sampled by R&B group Destiny's Child on their song "Bootylicious" (from their Survivor album.)

[edit] External links

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