Family Man (Fleetwood Mac song)

Last updated
"Family Man"
Familymanfleetwoodmac.jpg
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Tango in the Night
B-side "Down Endless Street"
Released30 November 1987 [1]
Recorded1985–1986
Genre
Length4:01
Label Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Lindsey Buckingham
  • Richard Dashut
Fleetwood Mac UKsingles chronology
"Little Lies"
(1987)
"Family Man"
(1987)
"Everywhere"
(1988)
Fleetwood Mac USsingles chronology
"Everywhere"
(1987)
"Family Man"
(1987)
"As Long as You Follow"
(1988)

"Family Man" is a song by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from their 1987 studio album Tango in the Night . The song was written by Lindsey Buckingham and producer Richard Dashut.

Contents

In the UK, "Family Man" was released as the fourth single following "Little Lies", where it debuted at No. 91 on 19 December 1987. It later went on to peak at No. 54 on 19 January 1988. In the US, the song was released as the fifth single from the album as the follow-up to "Everywhere" in March 1988, and reached No. 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Background

Similar to "Big Love", "Family Man" was originally slated to appear on Buckingham's third solo album, although the project later morphed into Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night . "Family Man" was nearly complete when Buckingham first presented the song to Fleetwood Mac, although the band "sweetened up" the mix and interspersed some vocal fragments from Stevie Nicks throughout the song's bridge. [2] The low voice on "Family Man" was sung by Buckingham, who achieved the effect by slowing down the tape speed. [3] The song possesses a stepwise ascending harmony and follows a VII-I chord progression. [4]

When asked about the song's subject matter, Buckingham said that song did not relate to domestic life and was instead about a willingness to contribute within a group context. He discussed how the lyrics related to his attempts at fostering a productive working environment in Fleetwood Mac where he could provide assistance to the rest of the group and enable them to participate in the creative process. [5]

"Family Man" was released as a special limited edition box set comprising the 7" single, plus two prints by the artist Susan Young [6] and Christine Tongue. The 12" single included several mixes of "Family Man", which were developed by Arthur Baker. [7] One of those mixes, titled the "House Mix", reached number 29 on the Music Week Dance Singles Chart. [8] In the United Kingdom, the 12" single was appended with "You and I, Part II", whereas the 12" inch single issued in the United States was a non-album song written by Buckingham titled "Down Endless Street", which also appeared as the B-side of the 7" single. [9] Radio & Records mentioned in its 8 April 1988 publication that 57 percent of reporting adult contemporary stations included "Family Man" in their rotation. [10]

"Family Man" is also included on the 2002 release The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac . [11] While "Family Man" was not included on the physical release of 50 Years - Don't Stop , it does appear on the streaming service edition of the album, which substituted several songs from the Peter Green era for songs from Kiln House onwards.

Critical reception

Cash Box called it "an engaging dance tune" with "an ethereal vocal and throbbing groove." [12] Writing for The Guardian , Alexis Petridis thought that Buckingham's "unsettled twitchiness" was evident in the "staccato vocals of 'Family Man.'" [13] Alex Henderson of AllMusic labeled "Family Man" as one of the best songs ever written by Buckingham. [14]

Music video

Promotion for the single was limited, as Lindsey Buckingham, the song's composer, had left the group after the album's release. [15] A video was created mixing previous footage of the band from the "Seven Wonders" video alongside archive footage of American families from the Great-Depression era. The video uses a shorter edit of the album version. [16]

Track listing

UK 7" vinyl single (Warner Bros. Records W 8114)

  1. "Family Man" – 4:01
  2. "Down Endless Street" – 4:24

UK 12" vinyl single (Warner Bros. Records W 8114 T)

  1. "Family Man" (Extended Vocal Remix) – 8:30
  2. "Family Party" (Bonus Beats) – 4:56
  3. "You and I, Part II" – 2:56

12" US single (Warner Brothers Records 0–20842)

  1. "Family Man" (Extended vocal remix) – 8:30
  2. "Family Man" (I'm a Jazz Man dub) – 8:52
  3. "Family Man" (Extended guitar remix) – 6:26
  4. "Family Party" (bonus beats) – 4:36
  5. "Down Endless Street" – 4:24

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1987–1988)Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart [17] 83
German Top 40 Singles Chart [18] 29
Netherlands Top 40 Singles Chart [19] 23
UK Singles Chart [20] 54
US Billboard Hot 100 [21] 90
US Adult Contemporary [22] 23

References

  1. "New Singles". Music Week . 28 Nov 1987. p. 18.
  2. "The Katz Tapes" . Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  3. Kurdish, J. (September 1987). "Fleetwood Mac: Return Without Leaving". Creem . p. 34.
  4. Moore, Alan (January 1992). "Patterns of Harmony". Popular Music. 11 (1). Cambridge University Press: 87–88. doi:10.1017/S0261143000004852. S2CID   162086782.
  5. Buckingham, Lindsey (1987). "Fleetwood Mac". Off the Record (Interview). Interviewed by Turner, Mary. Event occurs at 7:31–8:45. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  6. "Susan Young Animation". Susan Young Animation. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  7. Coleman, Bill (26 March 1988). "Dance Trax" (PDF). Billboard. p. 29. Retrieved 13 June 2025 via World Radio History.
  8. "Top Dance Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 9 January 1988. p. 25. Retrieved 9 August 2025 via World Radio History.
  9. Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. Canongate Press. p. 296. ISBN   9780862415419.
  10. "R&R National Airplay: Adult Contemporary National Breakouts" (PDF). Radio & Records. 8 April 1988. p. 93. Retrieved 9 August 2025 via World Radio History.
  11. Family Man - Fleetwood Mac Song Info AllMusic , retrieved 6 September 2021
  12. "Single Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. 26 March 1988. p. 8. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  13. Petridis, Alexis (23 March 2017). "Fleetwood Mac: Tango in the Night review – timely reissue coasts from gloss to gloom". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  14. "Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night". AllMusic. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  15. Ressner, Jeffrey (24 September 1987). "Lindsey Buckingham Leaves Fleetwood Mac". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  16. Roubin, Olivier; Ollivier, Romuald (1 April 2025). Fleetwood Mac: All The Songs. New York: Black Dog Leventhal Publishers. p. 486. ISBN   978-0-7624-8630-4.
  17. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. pp. 113–114. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
  18. "Offizielle Deutsche Charts - Offizielle Deutsche Charts". www.offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  19. "dutchcharts.nl: Discographie: Fleetwood Mac" (ASP). Hung Medien (in Dutch). MegaCharts . Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  20. "The Official Charts Company - Family Man by Fleetwood Mac Search". Official Charts Company. 6 May 2013.
  21. "Fleetwood Mac Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  22. "Fleetwood Mac Adult Contemporary Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 17 August 2023.