50 free Fleetwood Mac trivia questions with answers. Thunder only happens when it's raining. This quiz covers the whole of Fleetwood Mac's history, from Peter Green naming a blues band after his rhythm section in 1967 through Albatross, the LSD-scarred exits of Green, Spencer and Kirwan, Bob Welch's American years, the fake Fleetwood Mac tour of 1974, the arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Rumours and its four broken relationships, Tusk, Mirage, Tango in the Night, the Clinton inauguration reunion, The Dance and the skateboarding cranberry-juice video that sent Dreams back up the charts in 2020. Fifty questions cover the band's members, albums, singles, chart records and feuds. The easy questions ask which album won the 1978 Grammy for Album of the Year and which song is the band's only US No. 1; the hard ones want the Beatles song built on Albatross, the studio where Rumours was recorded, the marching band on Tusk, the guitarist who fell out with Fleetwood over Silver Springs and who replaced Buckingham in 2018. It suits fans of every era, from Green Manalishi to Everywhere. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the band, its members, albums and songs, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Fleetwood Mac was formed in London in 1967 by which guitarist, fresh from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers?
Peter Green
He had replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and named the new band after its rhythm section.
Q 02The band's name combines the surnames of which two members?
Mick Fleetwood and John McVie
Green named an instrumental after them first, then chose the name partly to lure McVie away from Mayall.
Q 03Which 1968 instrumental gave Fleetwood Mac their only UK No. 1 single?
Albatross
Green credited Danny Kirwan's guitar for the hit, and the Beatles used it as a starting point for Sun King.
Q 04Which Beatles song did George Harrison say was built on the band's 1968 instrumental hit?
Sun King
The Beatles wanted Fleetwood Mac on Apple Records, but manager Clifford Davis chose Warner/Reprise instead.
Q 05Which early Fleetwood Mac song became a much bigger hit when Santana covered it?
Black Magic Woman
Green performed it with Santana at the 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony rather than play with his old band.
Q 06The founding guitarist's decline is usually traced to a bad LSD trip at a commune in which city in 1969?
Munich
He soon wanted the band to give all its money to charity, and quit in May 1970.
Q 07What did Jeremy Spencer say he was going out to do in 1971 before vanishing to join the Children of God?
Get a magazine
Peter Green was called back to finish the tour, playing only new material.
Q 08Christine McVie sang in which British blues band before joining Fleetwood Mac?
Chicken Shack
Melody Maker voted her female artist of the year in 1969 and 1970 for hits like I'd Rather Go Blind.
Q 09What was Christine McVie's maiden name?
Perfect
Her father was a concert violinist and music lecturer in Birmingham.
Q 10Which American guitarist joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971 and later had a solo hit re-recording 'Sentimental Lady'?
Bob Welch
He was hired on the strength of a tape of his songs without ever playing with the band.
Q 11Guitarist Bob Weston was fired in 1973 after an affair with whose wife?
Mick Fleetwood's
Jenny Boyd was the sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie; the band cancelled 26 dates and split up in Nebraska.
Q 12In early 1974, manager Clifford Davis sent a completely different lineup on tour under what name?
The New Fleetwood Mac
Audiences turned hostile once word got out, and the lawsuit that followed drove the real band to California.
Q 13Mick Fleetwood discovered his future guitarist after hearing the track Frozen Love from which 1973 album?
Buckingham Nicks
Q 21Which Rumours track is the only Fleetwood Mac song credited to all five members?
The Chain
Its closing bass line became the BBC's Formula One theme.
Q 22In Britain, The Chain is best known as the theme for TV coverage of which sport?
Formula One
The BBC used it from 1978 to 1996 and again from 2009 to 2015.
Q 23Which Stevie Nicks song was recorded for Rumours but relegated to the B-side of Go Your Own Way?
Silver Springs
A row over its use in a 1992 box set is thought to be why Nicks quit the band in 1991.
Tusk (1979) was a 20-track double album. Which college ensemble appears on its title track?
Buckingham agreed to join only if his partner Stevie Nicks came too.
Q 14On what date did the two Californians officially join Fleetwood Mac?
New Year's Eve 1974
Bob Welch left for a solo career at the same time.
Q 15Fans call the 1975 self-titled record by what nickname?
The White Album
It took 58 weeks to reach No. 1 in the US and sold more than seven million copies.
Q 16Which Stevie Nicks song from Fleetwood Mac's 1975 album became a hit 20 years later on The Dance?
Landslide
Rhiannon and Say You Love Me both stalled at No. 11.
Q 17Rumours won the Grammy for Album of the Year in which year?
1978
It has sold some 40 million copies worldwide.
Q 18Rumours was recorded in early 1976 at the Record Plant in which Californian town?
Sausalito
The working title was Yesterday's Gone, and the sessions were fuelled by sleepless nights and cocaine.
Q 19Which Rumours single is Fleetwood Mac's only US No. 1?
Dreams
It sold more than a million copies and also topped the chart in Canada.
Q 20Go Your Own Way was written by which member, about his break-up with a bandmate?
Lindsey Buckingham
Nicks answered with Dreams; the two songs sit side by side on Rumours.
The USC Trojan Marching Band
Nicks's six-and-a-half-minute Sara was cut to four and a half for the single.
Q 25Tusk cost about $1.4 million to make, earning it what distinction at the time?
Most expensive rock album ever recorded
Warner regarded its four million sales as a flop next to Rumours' ten million.
Q 26Mick Fleetwood blamed Tusk's weaker sales on what?
A radio chain airing the whole album early
He argued the RKO broadcast let everyone tape it at home.
Q 27The 1982 album Mirage was recorded at a château in which country?
France
Château d'Hérouville was a deliberate return to a conventional sound after Tusk.
Q 28Fleetwood Mac headlined the first US Festival in September 1982 for what fee?
$500,000
The Mirage tour itself was just 18 American cities.
Q 29Which 1987 album, begun as a Buckingham solo project, gave the band Little Lies, Everywhere and Big Love?
Tango in the Night
It hit No. 1 in the UK three separate times the following year.
Q 30Christine McVie co-wrote Little Lies with whom?
Her new husband Eddy Quintela
Seven Wonders was written by Sandy Stewart with Nicks.