Landslide

"Landslide" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and performed by British-American music group Fleetwood Mac. It was first featured on the band's self-titled 1975 album, Fleetwood Mac. The original recording also appears on the compilation albums 25 Years – The Chain (1992) and The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002), while a live version was released as a single 23 years later from the live reunion album The Dance. It reached number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Landslide" was certified Gold in October 2009 for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States. According to Nielsen Soundscan, "Landslide" sold 1,315,950 copies in the United States as of February 2013.

History
Nicks says she wrote this song while contemplating going back to school or continuing on professionally with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Their album Buckingham Nicks had been dropped by Polydor Records before they could release a follow up. She wrote the song while visiting Aspen, Colorado, sitting in someone's living room "looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us ... at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways".

The song is one of Fleetwood Mac's most frequently performed on tour. Nicks has sung it on every Fleetwood Mac tour since joining the band, with the exception of the Shake the Cage tour, as well as on all of her own solo tours from 2005 onwards. A live performance of "Landslide" recorded on June 27, 1980, at the London Wembley Arena during the Tusk Tour was included on Live. Other live recordings of "Landslide" also appear on Live in Boston (2004), Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007) (with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), The Soundstage Sessions (2009), Soundstage, and the Live in Chicago DVD. Nicks also regularly performs it along with "Stand Back" during television guest appearances.

Personnel

 * Stevie Nicks – vocals
 * Lindsey Buckingham – guitars

The Smashing Pumpkins
Alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins recorded an acoustic arrangement of the song that was featured as the B-side to their 1994 single "Disarm" and later on their B-side collection Pisces Iscariot. The group's arrangement went on to be one of the rock band's most-beloved tracks and even had the approval of Nicks herself. As she told fans during a 1998 online chat with SonicNet, "There's nothing more pleasing to a songwriter than [someone else] doing one of their songs. ['Landslide'] also led me to being friends with Billy [Corgan] and the possibility that we'll work together," she said of the Smashing Pumpkins frontman. "Over this song, there's been this incredible connection ... he reached out ... I believe that my poetry is really meant for everyone, no matter what age." The new version was a hit, making it to the top three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States that year and number 30 on the US Airplay charts. The song was also featured on the US version of their greatest hits album Rotten Apples. It was later used in the TV show Alias on season 1 in the episode Page 47.

Dixie Chicks
American country group Dixie Chicks recorded "Landslide" for their 2002 album Home and it was released August 26, 2002 as the album's second single. Lead singer Natalie Maines said she was attracted, in part, to the song because she was then the same age that Nicks was when she initially performed it. The Dixie Chicks performed the song with Nicks at VH1 Divas Las Vegas in 2002.

This rendition, featuring the group's two- and three-part harmonies, reached the top 10 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and it became the Dixie Chicks' only number-one single to date on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Outside the United States, the song reached number two in Canada and number six in Australia, becoming the group's sole top-ten hit in the latter country. Their version has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and 3× Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association, surpassing the commercial success of the original.

The music video for the song was directed by Jim Gable and edited by Scott C. Wilson.

Glee version
The cast of Fox Broadcasting Company's musical television program, Glee, performed the song in Season 2, Episode 15, "Sexy". Gwyneth Paltrow, Naya Rivera, and Heather Morris are featured on vocals for this version. Stevie Nicks attended the filming of the song and stated that it was a "beautiful mix" of the original and Dixie Chicks version. The Glee version reached the top 40 on the singles charts of Australia (No. 38), Canada (No. 35), Ireland (No. 36), and the United States (No. 23). In addition to reaching number 52 on the UK Singles Chart, the new version also prompted renewed interest in the Fleetwood Mac and Dixie Chicks versions, leading to those artists' renditions re-entering the chart at numbers 178 and 196, respectively.

Other versions

 * Antony Hegarty recorded the song for the tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac.
 * Harry Styles performed this song with Nicks during his show at the Troubadour in May 2017.

Appearances in other media

 * The original 1975 song appeared in 2011 as a downloadable track for the music video game Rock Band 3.
 * Parodied by Lucy Lawless (in character as Stevie Nicks) in the October 17, 1998, episode of Saturday Night Live.