About the Song

“Rhiannon” is the second U.S. single from Fleetwood Mac’s 10th studio album, the eponymously titled Fleetwood Mac (1975). Issued as a radio remix, the single reached #11 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in June 1976 and #46 on the UK single charts in February 1978 (upon reissue).

The remix appears on The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002) and Fleetwood Mac reissue (2004).

Rhiannon is a character in the 1973 science fiction novel Triad by Mary Leader. Enamored by the name, Stevie wrote the song that became the classic “Rhiannon.” Years later, Stevie learned that Rhiannon was the Welsh horse goddess in Celtic mythology. The striking similarities between the song “Rhiannon” and Rhiannon of the Welsh stories inspired Stevie to write other songs about Rhiannon, many of which are still unreleased.

When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, many of the songs they had written for a proposed second Buckingham Nicks album (“Monday Morning,” “Rhiannon,” “Landslide,” and “I’m So Afraid”) were used for Fleetwood Mac instead.