Mr. Wonderful | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 23 August 1968 | |||
Recorded | April 1968 | |||
Studio | CBS, London | |||
Genre | Blues rock [1] | |||
Length | 41:30 | |||
Label | Blue Horizon | |||
Producer | Mike Vernon | |||
Fleetwood Mac chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Mr. Wonderful is the second studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 23 August 1968. This all-blues album was broadly similar to their debut album, albeit with some changes to personnel and recording method. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system, rather than plugged into the board. [3] A horn section was introduced and Christine Perfect (later Christine McVie) of Chicken Shack was featured on keyboards. The album took a total of four days to record. [4] In the US, the album was not issued under the name Mr. Wonderful, though around half of the tracks appeared on English Rose .
The band originally wanted the album to be titled A Good Length, which would have featured an "obvious phallic symbol" on the album's front cover according to Fleetwood, although this idea was rejected. Udder Sucker was the next proposed title, and Fleetwood even traveled to his godmother's farm to take a photo underneath a cow for the cover art, but the record label also turned this idea down. Fleetwood instead posed naked on the cover of Mr. Wonderful. [4]
An expanded version of Mr. Wonderful was included in the box set The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions . The song "Lazy Poker Blues" was covered by Status Quo on their 1971 album Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon .
Compared to the huge success of the band's first album, Fleetwood Mac , this follow-up received rather muted critical reviews: AllMusic described it as "a disappointment". Four of the songs, "Dust My Broom", "Doctor Brown", "Need Your Love Tonight" and "Coming Home", all begin with an identical Elmore James riff. "Evenin' Boogie" was the first instrumental released by Fleetwood Mac.
Sputnik Music describes the style as "vocally conservative, sticking to gruff mannerisms, and it often sounds like Green is drunkedly wandering through the music. The production adds further insult to injury, as it muffles his voice rather than amplifying it and makes the instruments sound murky." [5]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Stop Messin' Round" | Peter Green, C.G. Adams | 2:22 |
2. | "I've Lost My Baby" | Jeremy Spencer | 4:18 |
3. | "Rollin' Man" | Green, Adams | 2:54 |
4. | "Dust My Broom" | Elmore James, Robert Johnson | 2:54 |
5. | "Love That Burns" | Green, Adams | 5:04 |
6. | "Doctor Brown" | J. T. Brown, W. Glasco | 3:48 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Need Your Love Tonight" | Spencer | 3:29 |
2. | "If You Be My Baby" | Green, Adams | 3:54 |
3. | "Evenin' Boogie" | Spencer | 2:42 |
4. | "Lazy Poker Blues" | Green, Adams | 2:37 |
5. | "Coming Home" | James | 2:41 |
6. | "Trying So Hard to Forget" | Green, Adams | 4:47 |
Fleetwood Mac
Additional personnel
Production
Chart (1968) | Peak position |
---|---|
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts) [6] | 6 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [7] | 8 |
UK Albums (OCC) [8] | 10 |
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer and Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after their first public appearance. Danny Kirwan joined the band in 1968. Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician starting with the band's second album, married McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac as an official member in July 1970, two months after Green left the band, becoming known as Christine McVie.
Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band without any involvement of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie.
Penguin is the seventh studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on March 1, 1973. It was the first Fleetwood Mac album after the departure of Danny Kirwan, the first to feature Bob Weston and the only one to feature Dave Walker.
Live at the BBC is a double compact disc compilation album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, recorded at various BBC radio sessions between 1967 and 1971. It contains many tracks by Fleetwood Mac which are otherwise unavailable.
The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967–1969 is a boxed set by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1999. It is a six-CD compilation of previously released material, plus outtakes and unreleased tracks from the band's early line-up, coming in a longbox with individually boxed CDs and a booklet of extensive notes and anecdotes, written by the record's producer Mike Vernon. It represents the entire recorded output of Fleetwood Mac while they were signed to the Blue Horizon label.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac released on CBS Records in the United Kingdom in 1971. The album assembles the band's hit singles in the UK covering the period from the band's beginning in 1968 to 1971, mostly in its original incarnation led by guitarist Peter Green. It peaked at No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart.
Blues Jam in Chicago is a studio recording by the British rock band Fleetwood Mac, originally released in two single-LP volumes by Blue Horizon in December 1969. It was the result of a recording session in early 1969 at Chess Records in Chicago with Fleetwood Mac, then a young British blues band, and a number of famous Chicago blues artists from whom they drew inspiration. The album has also been released, with slightly different track listings, under the titles Blues Jam at Chess Volumes One and Two and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, the latter by Sire Records in 1976.
Jeremy Spencer is an album by British blues rock musician Jeremy Spencer, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1967–71. Released on 23 January 1970, this was his first solo album and the first solo album by a contemporaneous member of Fleetwood Mac.
The Biggest Thing Since Colossus is an album by American blues musician Otis Spann, released in 1969. The album is also notable for the fact that Spann's backing band on this occasion were members of Fleetwood Mac, who were touring in America at the time. Spann had been involved in the recording of the Blues Jam at Chess album, and a rapport had been struck between Spann and the British band, which led to their participation on Spann's new album.
The Pious Bird of Good Omen is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1969. It consists of their first four non-album UK singles and their B-sides, two other tracks from their previous album Mr. Wonderful, and two tracks by the blues artist Eddie Boyd with backing by members of Fleetwood Mac. These two tracks came from Boyd's album 7936 South Rhodes.
Michael William Hugh Vernon is an English music executive studio owner, and record producer from Harrow, Middlesex. He produced albums for British blues artists and groups in the 1960s, working with the Bluesbreakers, David Bowie, Duster Bennett, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Climax Blues Band, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John Mayall, Christine McVie and Ten Years After amongst others.
The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac is a compilation album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac released in November 2002 and focusing on the Peter Green years. The album serves as a digitally remastered replacement for the band's Greatest Hits, with the remastering and cover art taken from the 1999 box set The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967–1969.
"Stop Messin' Round" is a song first recorded by English blues rock group Fleetwood Mac in 1968. It was written by the group's principal guitarist and singer Peter Green, with an additional credit for manager C.G. Adams. The song is an upbeat 12-bar blues shuffle and is representative of the group's early repertoire of conventional electric blues. The lyrics deal with the common blues theme of the unfaithful lover and share elements with earlier songs.
English Rose is a compilation album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in December 1968. It was originally a US-only compilation, combining six tracks from the UK release Mr. Wonderful, three UK non-album single sides, two not-yet-released songs from the UK version of Then Play On and one other previously unreleased track. It was released some months before the UK release of The Pious Bird of Good Omen, sharing four songs with that album. Mick Fleetwood appears in drag on the cover.
Looking Back is the seventh album released by John Mayall in August 1969 by Decca Records. The album features songs by both John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and John Mayall solo work. The album reached No. 79 on the Billboard 200. Confusingly, there are two different albums with the title "Looking Back": a Decca UK release as a single album and a Decca Germany release as a double album. Later issues on CD would use the Deram label.
O.K. Ken? is the second studio album by the blues band, Chicken Shack, released in February 1969. O.K Ken? reached number 9 in the UK Albums Chart, three places higher than its predecessor, 40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve.
40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve is the debut studio album by the blues band Chicken Shack, released in 1968. The album reached number 12 in the UK Albums Chart.
Madison Blues – Live & Studio Recordings is a compilation album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 2003. It is a compilation of BBC session tracks and live concert material from the band's first post-Peter Green line up, none of which had previously been officially released. The album focuses on the period between the successful Peter Green period and the start of the Bob Welch period which eventually led to another successful period for the band in the mid to late 1970s. Packaged as a double CD with a DVD interview with guitarist Jeremy Spencer, it came in a cardboard box with a foldout inner sheet.
"Rattlesnake Shake" is a song by British rock group Fleetwood Mac, written by guitarist Peter Green, which first appeared on the band's 1969 album Then Play On. The track was one of the band's crowd-favorites in the late 1960s.
I'm Not Me is the second solo album by Mick Fleetwood. This album is credited to the British-American rock band Mick Fleetwood's Zoo and features contributions from Fleetwood Mac members Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham. Billy Burnette, who performs some of the lead vocals on this album as a member of Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo, would later join Fleetwood Mac in 1987 following the departure of Buckingham.