# The Dance (Fleetwood Mac album)
**The Dance** is a live album by the British-American rock band [Fleetwood Mac](https://www.edgepedia.org/fleetwood-mac), released on 19 August 1997 by [Reprise Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/reprise-records) to mark the reunion of the band's most successful lineup: [Lindsey Buckingham](https://www.edgepedia.org/lindsey-buckingham), Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood[1](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp) • [2](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/tom-got-really-angry-with-me-he-said-youre-one-of-the-best-songwriters-i-know-you-dont-need-my-help-you-dont-need-anybodys-help-how-tom-petty-inspired-stevie-nicks-to-make-a-comeback-and-why-she-felt-misunderstood-by-prince). It was recorded at a single MTV-broadcast concert and became the band's first album to top the US album chart since *Mirage* in 1982[1](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Released | 19 August 1997, Reprise Records[2](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/tom-got-really-angry-with-me-he-said-youre-one-of-the-best-songwriters-i-know-you-dont-need-my-help-you-dont-need-anybodys-help-how-tom-petty-inspired-stevie-nicks-to-make-a-comeback-and-why-she-felt-misunderstood-by-prince) • [3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html) |
| Recorded | 23 May 1997, Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California, for an MTV broadcast[4](https://www.whereitwas.com/worlds/fleetwood-mac-the-dance) |
| Lineup | Buckingham, Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood, together on record for the first time since *Tango in the Night* (1987)[1](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp) • [3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html) |
| Chart peak | No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the band's first chart-topping US album since *Mirage* (1982)[1](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp) • [3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html) |
| Sales | Debuted 6 September 1997 with 199,000 copies; 5-times Platinum; over 5 million US copies and over 6 million worldwide[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html) • [5](https://www.rhino.com/aod/the-dance-fleetwood-mac) |
| New songs | "Temporary One", "Bleed to Love Her", "My Little Demon", and "Sweet Girl", one each from Christine McVie, Buckingham (two), and Nicks[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html) |
| Guest performers | The USC Trojan Marching Band on "Tusk" and "Don't Stop"[5](https://www.rhino.com/aod/the-dance-fleetwood-mac) |
## The recording
On 23 May 1997 the five musicians performed together at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank before a live audience, for an MTV special; the concert was released as the album[4](https://www.whereitwas.com/worlds/fleetwood-mac-the-dance). The reunion had been encouraged for some time, and Lindsey Buckingham set aside work on his own album to enter rehearsals for what became the live record, a project a bandmate later described as the beginning of a major resuscitation of the original band members[6](https://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/FMart139.html). The audio was recorded with a remote recording truck and edited and mastered at Sterling Sound in New York, with Elliot Scheiner among the engineers and music producers[7](https://www.fleetwoodmac.net/discog/discog.php?pid=29).
The staging looked back as well as forward. For "Tusk" and the closing "[Don't Stop](https://www.edgepedia.org/dont-stop-fleetwood-mac-song)", the band was joined by the USC Trojan Marching Band, renewing a collaboration that had begun on the studio album *[Tusk](https://www.edgepedia.org/tusk-album)* in 1979[4](https://www.whereitwas.com/worlds/fleetwood-mac-the-dance) • [5](https://www.rhino.com/aod/the-dance-fleetwood-mac).
## Setlist and new material
The CD carries 17 songs drawn mostly from the 1975–1987 catalog, opening with "The Chain" and including "Dreams", "Everywhere", "Rhiannon", "Landslide", "[Go Your Own Way](https://www.edgepedia.org/go-your-own-way)", and "Silver Springs"[1](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp). Alongside the classics, the album introduced four previously unrecorded songs, one or more from each of the band's principal writers: [Christine McVie](https://www.edgepedia.org/christine-mcvie)'s "Temporary One", Buckingham's "Bleed to Love Her" and "My Little Demon", and Nicks' "Sweet Girl"[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html). The DVD tracklist is longer, 22 songs, adding "Gold Dust Woman", "Gypsy", "Go Insane", "Over My Head", and "Songbird" to performances that do not appear on the CD[8](https://www.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/album/dance).
"Silver Springs" carried particular history. Nicks wrote it for *[Rumours](https://www.edgepedia.org/rumours-album)*, but it was cut from that album because of vinyl running-time limits and appeared only as the B-side of "Go Your Own Way" before returning on the 1992 box set *25 Years – The Chain*[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html). Its performance on *The Dance* became one of the reunion's most discussed moments[9](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/06/stereophonic-breakup-album-tonys/678739/).
## Commercial performance
The album debuted on Billboard's Top 200 on 6 September 1997 with sales of 199,000 copies, spent the next 12 weeks inside the top 10, and sold its first million US copies within eight weeks[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html). It went on to become the fifth best-selling live album of all time in the United States, with US sales over 5 million copies and worldwide sales over 6 million[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html) • [1](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp). It was certified five-times Platinum and earned three Grammy nominations[5](https://www.rhino.com/aod/the-dance-fleetwood-mac). The 1998 single release of a live "Landslide", drawn from the album, reached number 51 on the [Billboard](https://www.edgepedia.org/billboard-magazine) chart[10](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/he-came-back-to-aspen-and-he-was-very-angry-with-me-and-he-left-me-took-ginnie-the-poodle-and-the-car-and-left-me-in-aspen-how-being-alone-in-snowy-aspen-saved-fleetwood-mac-and-became-a-sleeper-hit).
## Reception
Critics divided over the new songs and the production. The AllMusic review credited Buckingham's "Bleed to Love Her" and "My Little Demon" as first-rate while judging that the unplugged-style setting left the older songs slightly hollow, with the arrangements close to the originals except for Buckingham's solo "Big Love" and the marching-band "Don't Stop"[11](https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-dance-mw0000026085). A contemporary review in *The Argonaut* singled out "Bleed to Love Her" as proving itself "pure Mac" despite never having been an actual Fleetwood Mac studio song[12](https://objects.lib.uidaho.edu/argonaut/pdf/arg-1997-09-03.pdf). For many listeners the album was an entry point to the band, with MTV and VH1 airings introducing a new generation of fans[3](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html).
## The reunion that followed
The album was a beginning rather than a one-off. A reunion tour followed, running from 17 September 1997, when the band opened at the Meadows Music Theater in [Hartford, Connecticut](https://www.edgepedia.org/hartford-connecticut), to 27 November, ending at [Madison Square Garden](https://www.edgepedia.org/madison-square-garden)[4](https://www.whereitwas.com/worlds/fleetwood-mac-the-dance) • [13](https://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/archive/FMart_arc015.html). The concert film was first issued on VHS, with the DVD issue following on 11 November 1997; the DVD was certified Platinum on 27 February 1998[7](https://www.fleetwoodmac.net/discog/discog.php?pid=29). After years in which the band's non-classic incarnations had struggled commercially, the reunion also restored the members' appetite for working together, and the band discussed recording another album[14](https://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/FMart28.htm).
## References
1. [The Dance [2LP], Fleetwood Mac official store](https://store.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/products/the-dance-2lp)
2. [How Tom Petty inspired Stevie Nicks to make a comeback, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/tom-got-really-angry-with-me-he-said-youre-one-of-the-best-songwriters-i-know-you-dont-need-my-help-you-dont-need-anybodys-help-how-tom-petty-inspired-stevie-nicks-to-make-a-comeback-and-why-she-felt-misunderstood-by-prince)
3. [Fleetwood Mac The Dance 1997, Fleetwood Mac News](https://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/fleetwood-mac-dance-1997.html)
4. [The Dance: a reunion in Burbank, Where It Was](https://www.whereitwas.com/worlds/fleetwood-mac-the-dance)
5. [THE DANCE, Album of the Day, Rhino Entertainment](https://www.rhino.com/aod/the-dance-fleetwood-mac)
6. [Fleetwood Mac Articles, Fleetwood Mac UK](https://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/FMart139.html)
7. [The Dance (1997), Fleetwood Mac discography](https://www.fleetwoodmac.net/discog/discog.php?pid=29)
8. [The Dance, Fleetwood Mac official website](https://www.fleetwoodmacofficial.com/album/dance)
9. [How a Band Falls Apart, According to Stereophonic, The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/06/stereophonic-breakup-album-tonys/678739/)
10. [How being alone in snowy Aspen saved Fleetwood Mac, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/he-came-back-to-aspen-and-he-was-very-angry-with-me-and-he-left-me-took-ginnie-the-poodle-and-the-car-and-left-me-in-aspen-how-being-alone-in-snowy-aspen-saved-fleetwood-mac-and-became-a-sleeper-hit)
11. [Fleetwood Mac: The Dance, AllMusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine](https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-dance-mw0000026085)
12. [The Argonaut, University of Idaho, 3 September 1997](https://objects.lib.uidaho.edu/argonaut/pdf/arg-1997-09-03.pdf)
13. [Fleetwood Mac – The Dance review, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1997, Fleetwood Mac UK archive](https://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/archive/FMart_arc015.html)
14. [Fleetwood Mac – Never Break the Chain, Goldmine Magazine, 21 November 1997, Fleetwood Mac UK](https://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/FMart28.htm)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Live albums and concert recordings*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license