Mirage (Fleetwood Mac album)

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Mirage
Mirage cover
Studio album by Fleetwood Mac
Released June 23, 1982
Recorded 1981-82
Genre Rock
Length 42:52
Label Warner Bros. Records
Producer Lindsey Buckingham,
Ken Caillat,
Richard Dashut,
Fleetwood Mac
Professional reviews
Fleetwood Mac chronology
Live
(1980)
Mirage
(1982)
Tango in the Night
(1987)

Mirage is an 1982 album by Fleetwood Mac.

Following a hiatus of over a year since the completion of the worldwide "Tusk" tour, the band then temporarily relocated to France to record the album, by which time both Nicks and Buckingham had each achieved solo success. "Mirage" spawned the hit singles "Hold Me" (which reached #4 on the US Billboard pop charts), "Gypsy" (#12), "Love In Store" (#22), and "Oh Diane" which reached #9 in the UK.

The album reached #1 in the US, #5 in the UK, and #2 in Australia.

Contents

[edit] Payola Controversy

The release of Mirage was a key event in an ongoing controversy over payola. Payola is the alleged practice of a record label paying money to radio stations to have them play a song without the listener knowing that the station has been paid to play it. While a label directly paying payola is illegal, numerous sources have alleged that payola is accomplished via payments to independent third parties known as independent promoters or "indies". Indies early on evolved a price system where they moved away from charging labels for playing specific songs only when requested to instead charging smaller fees for all songs played from that label. This would lead to labels being billed for songs radio stations would have most likely played anyway, due to the artist being already well known. This upset labels but no real effort was made to resist it until the release of Mirage. Warner Bros. resolved to not pay any billings from indies related to this album. Indies struck back, nearly eliminating radio play of the album entirely. To demonstrate their control over the radio industry (by getting rid of any possibility that the album might not have been played due simply to the quality of the album), the indies mandated the album to be played, causing a rise in the Billboard charts, and then again forbade it, causing a fall. The indies would not be notably challenged again until the late 1980s.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Love in Store" (McVie, Recor) – 3:14
  2. "Can't Go Back" (Buckingham) – 2:42
  3. "That's Alright" (Nicks) – 3:09
  4. "Book of Love" (Buckingham, Dashut) – 3:21
  5. "Gypsy" (Nicks) – 4:24
  6. "Only Over You" (McVie) – 4:08
  7. "Empire State" (Buckingham, Dashut) – 2:51
  8. "Straight Back" (Nicks) – 4:17
  9. "Hold Me" (McVie, Patton) – 3:44
  10. "Oh Diane" (Buckingham, Dashut) – 2:33
  11. "Eyes of the World" (Buckingham) – 3:44
  12. "Wish You Were Here" (McVie, Allen) – 4:45

[edit] Credits

Fleetwood Mac

Additional personnel:

  • Ray Lindsey - additional guitar on "Straight Back"

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1982 US 1
1982 UK 5
1982 AUS 2

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1982 "Gypsy" Adult Contemporary 9
1982 "Gypsy" Mainstream Rock 4
1982 "Gypsy" Pop Singles 12
1982 "Hold Me" Adult Contemporary 7
1982 "Hold Me" Mainstream Rock 3
1982 "Hold Me" Pop Singles 4
1982 "Straight Back" Mainstream Rock 36
1983 "Love in Store" Adult Contemporary 11
1983 "Love In Store" Pop Singles 22
1983 "Oh Diane" Adult Contemporary 35
1983 "Gypsy" UK 46
1983 "Oh Diane" UK 9

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Tug of War by Paul McCartney
Billboard 200 number-one album
August 7 - September 10, 1982
Succeeded by
American Fool by John Cougar