Oh Daddy (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Oh Daddy"
"Oh Daddy"
Song by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Rumours
Released	1977
Recorded	1976
Genre	Blues rock
Length	3:56
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Christine McVie
Producer(s)	Fleetwood Mac, Ken Caillat, Richard Dashut

"Oh Daddy" is a song written by Christine McVie that was first performed by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac as the tenth song off their 1977 album Rumours.

The song was played throughout the band's Rumours and Tusk world tours,^[1] and resurfaced for the 1997 The Dance tour before disappearing once again.

Background

Christine McVie stated in a series of 1977 interviews that she wrote the song about Mick Fleetwood's separation from his erstwhile wife, Jenny Boyd.^[2] At the time, Fleetwood was the only father in the band, with two daughters.^[3] However, both Lindsey Buckingham's former girlfriend Carol Ann Harris and Stevie Nicks' biographer Zoe Howe have written that the song was originally written for the band's lighting director, who McVie had been dating at the time.^[4]^[5] Both Harris and Howe contend McVie only later claimed that the song was written for Fleetwood.^[4]^[5]

Producer Ken Caillat described "Oh Daddy" as "a beautiful, airy song." He noted that getting the proper tempo was particularly tricky since it sounded rushed at a quicker tempo but lethargic at a slower pace.^[6] Fleetwood Mac biographer Cath Carroll praised McVie's vocal and likened the song to a "sexy, old English version of The Rolling Stones' 'Fool to Cry'."^[7] In 2012, Fleetwood listed "Oh Daddy" as one of his 11 greatest recordings.^[8]

Production

During the Rumours sessions, the band jokingly referred to the song as 'Addy' due to a technical mishap. Caillat had made the mistake while playing back a take. "We were going to do some overdubs, and while rewinding the tape, a portable tape oscillator fell on the machine, sending it into free-wheel – the reels were spinning out of control. I jumped on the machine to stop it - and snapped the tape! Oh, man... [laughs] We listened back and there it was: 'Oh 'addy.' The 'D' part of Christine's vocal was cut off. My heart sunk."^[9]

Early on in the recording process, Caillat applied a delay effect onto the song to give the musicians a better understanding of what the song would sound like with audio effects.^[10] Near the end of one take, Christine McVie played random notes on her keyboard to grab the attention of the engineers in the control room. The band opted to keep these unplanned additions in the final version of the song.^[11]

The band also utilized a $40,000 nine-foot Bösendorfer grand piano at Davlen Studios in North Hollywood. Caillat described the instrument as having "great action but also a dark quality". To achieve a brighter tone from the piano, Caillat used some tube U-47 microphones and applied some EQ to the instrument. McVie held down the piano's sustain pedal and played long single chords on beat 1 of the verses to create a "dramatic" effect. To extend the duration of the chords even longer, Caillat gradually increased the sensitivity of the microphones so that the chord would ring for 20-30 seconds.^[6]

For the electric guitar parts, Buckingham played a Fender Stratocaster that was connected through a Leslie speaker and a volume pedal.^[10] The electric guitars were treated with reverb and delay. Buckingham also accentuated certain passages with some harmonics on an acoustic guitar.^[6]

Critical reception

Pitchfork critic Jessica Hopper described "Oh Daddy" as a melancholic song "that ultimately maintains its dignity."^[12] Andre Unterberger of Billboard placed the song tenth out of eleven on their list ranking every track on Rumours. He believed that the song's "gorgeously windswept production" created some "chilling moments" but felt that the lyrics and melody were not particularly strong.^[13] Rolling Stone ranked the song 35th on its list of the top 50 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.^[14]

Personnel

Christine McVie – piano, Hammond B3, Moog, lead vocals
Mick Fleetwood – drums, castanets, gong
John McVie – bass guitar
Lindsey Buckingham – acoustic guitars, electric guitars, backing vocals
Stevie Nicks – backing vocals

References

^ Wilkes, Emma (22 July 2023). "Fleetwood Mac announce 'Rumours' live album". NME. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^ Egan, Sean, ed. (2016). Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters. Chicago Review Press. pp. 34, 48, 297. ISBN 978-161373-234-2.
^ Fleetwood, Mick; Bozza, Anthony (October 2014). Play On: Now Then & Fleetwood Mac. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-316-40342-9.
^ ^a ^b Harris, Carol Ann (2009). Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781569764992.
^ ^a ^b Howe, Zoe (2014). Stevie Nicks: Visions Dreams & Rumours. Music Sales Limited. ISBN 9781783231287.
^ ^a ^b ^c Caillat, Ken & Stiefel, Steve (2012). Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album. Wiley & Sons. pp. 74–80, 122, 293-294. ISBN 9781118218082.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Carroll, Cath (2004). Never Break the Chain: Fleetwood Mac and the Making of Rumours. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781556525452.
^ Bosso, Joe (27 July 2012). "Mick Fleetwood: My 11 Greatest Recordings of All Time - Oh Daddy (1977)". MusicRadar. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
^ Bosso, Joe (13 December 2022). "Fleetwood Mac's Classic Album Rumours Track-by-Track - Oh Daddy". MusicRadar. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
^ ^a ^b Cummings, Howard (April 1978). "Engineers/Co-Producers Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat recording the Grammy winning Fleetwood Mac Rumours album" (PDF). Recording Engineer/Producer. p. 21, 24, 33.
^ Baker, J.I.; et al. (2015). "Fleetwood Mac: 40 Years Later: John, Christine, Stevie, Mick and Lindsey—Together Again". Life Magazine. p. 68.
^ Hopper, Jessica (8 February 2013). "Fleetwood Mac: Rumours". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
^ Unterberger, Andrew (4 February 2017). "Every Song on Fleetwood Mac's Rumours Ranked". Billboard. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
^ Weingarten, Christopher; et al. (2 May 2022). "Fleetwood Mac's 50 Greatest Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 31 October 2024.