Say You Will (album)

Soon after the release of Time, Billy Burnette and Bekka Bramlett departed to form the country duo Bekka & Billy. Rather than continue without them, Fleetwood Mac chose to disband. By 1997, the Rumours lineup agreed to perform again for an MTV special. Following the successful reunion album, The Dance, which included a live performance of "Bleed to Love Her",[9] Christine McVie left the group, citing her fear of flying as the primary reason for her departure.[10]

In the early 2000s, Buckingham was finishing up a solo album but was encouraged by the band to set the material aside for a Fleetwood Mac record.[11] With the exception of "What's the World Coming To?" and "Peacekeeper", all of Buckingham's Say You Will songs were considered for his aborted solo record.[12] Buckingham stated that the body of music he created during these solo sessions "tapped into some new areas" and were "the best that I’ve ever done on my own, or with Fleetwood Mac".[13]

To round out Say You Will, Nicks brought in some new material, along with leftovers from previous albums.[9] While Nicks was recording her Trouble in Shangri-La solo album in 2001, she left the band 17 songs to develop in her absence. The band picked five of these songs, including "Smile At You" and "Goodbye Baby", which were written in 1975-76.[14] "Smile at You" was also rehearsed for the Tusk album in 1979[15] and the Mirage album in 1982.[16] Another song, "Thrown Down", was originally recorded for Trouble in Shangri-La, but it was left off that album and instead reworked for Say You Will.[17] According to Buckingham, Nicks had previously tried three different mixes of "Thrown Down" with three different people, but none of them worked out. "It was just obvious to me it needed a guitar riff in the chorus. It was a fairly simple thing, for some reason. There seems to be an understanding between us as to what to do."[18]

By the time Nicks returned from her Trouble in Shangri-La tour, the rest of the band had already made considerable progress on her material. While Nicks was pleased with what she heard, she felt obligated to write four additional compositions. Two of those songs, "Silver Girl" and the title track, feature contributions from Sheryl Crow.[14] "Illume (9-11)" was written after the September 11 attacks. Nicks wrote two additional songs about 9/11, namely "Get Back on the Plane," and "The Towers Touched the Sky", but neither of these were included on the album.[19]

With their surplus of material, the band originally considered making Say You Will a double album,[20] but they instead opted to condense Say You Will into a single disc of 18 songs. "Not Make Believe", a Rolling Stones cover of "I Am Waiting", and "Gift of Screws" were all rehearsed and considered for the track list.[21] "Not Make Believe" was included on the limited edition of Say You Will,[22] "I Am Waiting" was selected for Buckingham's Under the Skin album in 2006, and "Gift of Screws" appeared on Buckingham's 2008 album of the same name.[12]

Note

• "Bleed to Love Her" was previously available on The Dance as a live version.

Fleetwood Mac

• Lindsey Buckingham – vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion
• Stevie Nicks – vocals, additional keyboards
• John McVie – bass guitar, black keys[23]
• Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

• John Shanks – additional keyboards (1), additional guitars (8)
• Sheryl Crow – Hammond organ and backing vocals (7, 12)
• Jamie Muhoberac – Hammond organ (9)
• Christine McVie – Hammond organ, keyboards (13), backing vocals (13, 14)
• Dave Palmer – acoustic piano (13)
• John Pierce – bass guitar [verses] (13)
• Madelyne Felsch, Molly McVie and Jessica James Nicks – backing vocals (7)

Technical personnel

• Lindsey Buckingham – producer, engineer
• Rob Cavallo – producer (5, 6, 9, 13, 14), A&R
• John Shanks – producer (1, 8)
• Ken Allardyce – engineer
• Ken Koroshetz – engineer
• Ray Lindsey – engineer, band technician
• Mark Needham – engineer, mixing (1-15, 17, 18)
• Chris Lord-Alge – mixing (16)
• Bernie Grundman – mastering
• Joe Bozzi – mastering assistant
• Mike Fasano – band technician
• Bruce Jaccoby – band technician
• Garner Knutsen – band technician
• Mike Zablow – band technician
• Stephen Walker – art direction
• Keith Carter – "Hands 1991" photography
• Karen Johnston – photography
• Neal Preston – photography
• Herbert W. Worthington – photography

Studios

• Recorded at The Bellagio House; Ocean Way Recording (Hollywood, California); Lindsey's garage (Los Angeles, California); Cornerstone Studios (Chatsworth, California).
• Mixed at Cornerstone Studios; Conway Studios (Hollywood, California); Image Recording Studios (Los Angeles, California).
• Mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering (Hollywood, California).

Music videos were shot for "Peacekeeper" and "Say You Will", both of these videos were stage performances of both songs. Neither of these videos were commercially available until 2019, when Fleetwood Mac published these videos on their official YouTube channel.