CNN
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There’s a reason Christine McVie was considered the heart of Fleetwood Mac.
The band’s keyboardist, who died Wednesday after a short illness at the age of 79, was also the writer of some of the band’s most beloved songs.
Here are just five of those tunes:
This one is related to some drama.
Fleetwood Mac is known for their somewhat tumultuous relationships, especially when it came to romantic ones.
Band members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had an affair that ended badly, and McVeigh famously married and then divorced their other bandmate, John McVeigh.
He reportedly thought the song, with its lyrics “Sweet Wonderft You/You Me Me Me Me Mean with the things you do/Oh, can it be that/This feeling follows me wherever I go,” was about their dog, as McVies was married at the time.
But it turns out that Christine McVie had signed a love song in honor of the band’s lighting director, with whom she was having an affair.
Another tune from their famous album “Rumors”.
“Don’t Stop” proved to be a hopeful anthem for the future, so meaningful to former President Bill Clinton that he used it as his 1992 campaign anthem.
On Wednesday, he tweeted a tribute to McVeigh.
“I am saddened by the passing of Christine McVie,” he tweeted. “I am grateful to Christine and Fleetwood Mac for entrusting us with such a meaningful song. I will miss her.”
This was actually a solo song for McVie.
The first single from her self-titled solo album sounds like it could be a Fleetwood Mac song, with its fast beat and infectious chorus: “Ooh, I got love/I got someone/This love got me.”
Plus Buckingham plays guitar on this one, giving it even more of a Fleetwood Mac vibe.
“Say You Love Me” is a cheerful tune that has become a staple on rock and easy listening radio stations.
She reflected on the sweet harmonies she, Nick, and Buckingham achieve over the melody in a 1990 interview.
“The first time I started playing ‘Say You Love Me’ and I got to the chorus, they started singing with me and fell into it,” the singer-songwriter’s magazine reported. “I heard this incredible sound, our three voices… and my skin turned to jelly.”
It’s fitting that so many on social media used this song to pay tribute to McVie after her passing.
The ballad she wrote is intended as a perfect memorial to someone lost.
Playing it now after her death, it feels haunting as she pours her heart into the opening lyrics: “There’ll be no more crying/for you, the sun will shine/and I feel that when I’m with you/it’s okay, I know it’s true.”
