FEATURE:
The Lockdown Playlist
Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna at Forty
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MAYBE this is a little tenuous…
but I wanted to mark the upcoming fortieth anniversary of Stevie Nicks’ debut solo album, Bella Donna. Released on 27th July, 1981, it came a year before Fleetwood Mac’s thirteenth studio album, Mirage. I am going to do a Lockdown Playlist that collates the best of Stevie Nicks’ solo work – I have done a Lockdown Playlist about her before but, as her debut celebrates a big anniversary, I feel obliged to revisit. Before getting there, here is some information about Nicks’ wonderful debut:
“Bella Donna is the debut solo studio album by American singer and songwriter Stevie Nicks. Released on July 27, 1981, the album reached number one on the US Billboard 200 in September of that year. Bella Donna was awarded platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 7, 1981, less than three months after its release, and in 1990 was certified quadruple-platinum for four million copies shipped. Bella Donna spent nearly three years on the Billboard 200 from July 1981 to June 1984.
The album spawned four 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), her signature song "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 realize her sparse demo recordings. Along with friends Tom Petty and Don Henley, Nicks brought in session musician Waddy Wachtel, Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band pianist Roy Bittan, and Stax session man Donald "Duck" Dunn of 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. The album also marked the first recording featuring Nicks' backing vocalists, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who still record and tour with Nicks today.
The album was also included in the "Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums" chart”.
To mark forty years of Stevie Nicks’ stunning and hugely memorable debut album, Bella Donna, below is a collection of great songs from…
A musical icon.