"Little Lies" is a song by British-American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...

from their fourteenth studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''

Tango in the Night ''Tango in the Night'' is the fourteenth studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 13 April 1987. It is the fifth and final studio album from the band's most successful lineup of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, ...

'' (1987). It was written by band member

Christine McVie Christine Anne McVie (; née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as keyboardist and one of the vocalists of the band Fleetwood Mac. McVie was a member of several bands, nota ...

and her then-husband, Eddy Quintela, with lead vocals performed primarily by McVie, although the chorus features backing vocals by

Lindsey Buckingham Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American musician and record producer, best known as the lead guitarist and male lead vocalist of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with Fl ...

and

Stevie Nicks Stephanie Lynn Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. After starting her career as a duo with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, releasi ...

. The song was released in August 1987 by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

, as the third

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from ''Tango in the Night''. On its release, the single reached number one for four weeks on the US ''Billboard''

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart and number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in November 1987. To date, it is their most recent top-ten hit in the United States. The single also reached number five on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. "Little Lies" continues to be played on radio stations as a classic hit of the late-1980s, along with " Everywhere" and " Seven Wonders", both of which are from ''Tango in the Night''. "Little Lies" was also accompanied by a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, filmed on a farm, in and around its rustic buildings and fields. The single was also available on the 12" single format, featuring an extended dance version, a dub version and its B-side, "Ricky", a non-album track penned by McVie and Buckingham. A limited 12" picture disc was also released in the United Kingdom, and it was the first Fleetwood Mac single to be issued on the

cassette single A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was first introduced in 1980. History The debu ...

format. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said that "McVie's songwriting ability combined with

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

assistance provide a extremely likeable hit-to-be."

Track listing and formats

* US 12" vinyl single (Warner Bros. Records 0-20761) #"Little Lies" (Extended version) – 6:07 #"Little Lies" (Dub version) – 4:04 #"Ricky" – 4:21 * UK 7" vinyl single (Warner Bros. Records W 8291) #"Little Lies" – 3:38 #"Ricky" – 4:21

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals, synthesizers *

– guitars, synthesizers,

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

, backing vocals *

– backing vocals *

John McVie John Graham McVie (born 26 November 1945) is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleet ...

– bass guitar *

Mick Fleetwood Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of th ...

– drums, percussion

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Hilary Duff version

Hilary Duff Hilary Erhard Duff (born September 28, 1987) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including seven Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, four Teen Choice Awards and two Young Artist Awards. She began her act ...

recorded a cover of the song, produced by

Peer Åström Peer Åström (born 1972 in Ljusdal, Sweden) is a Swedish composer, lyricist, musician and record producer and partner with Anders Bagge. The two songwriters / producers are known as Bagge & Peer. They have together written and produced songs for ...

and

Adam Anders Adam Anders (born October 10, 1975) is a Swedish film, television and music producer who has sold more than 100 million albums and in recent years has become one of the most in-demand Executive Producers for music-driven film and television. Ander ...

, in promotion of the second season of her

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...

comedy series, '' Younger''. It was released January 13, 2016 through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

and

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

Background and recording

"TV Land called me," Duff told ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'', "They were like, 'We want you to cover a song for the promos for the second season.' And I’m like, 'Oh my God. Yes, of course, I would love to.'" A preview of her rendition of the song was made available through the magazine in December 2015. The recording was produced by Peer Åström and Adam Anders, with vocal engineering and production from Alex Anders, the same team responsible for the music behind the popular

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

musical comedy-drama, ''

Glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...

''. Duff's recording has been described as

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

, with additional influences of

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

genres, especially

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

Critical reception

Duff's genre-altering recording of "Little Lies" has received mixed reviews from critics. "This cover doesn’t work for me," writes Mike Wass of ''

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolater or Idolator may also refer to: Books *''Os Idólatras'', 1968 Portuguese novel by Maria Judite de Carvalho Music * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), third album ...

,'' "The plodding electronic production ... completely overwhelms Fleetwood Mac’s delicate ''Tango In The Night'' smash and makes the " Sparks" diva sound like

Siri Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and audioOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer questio ...

's older sister." However, Lucas Villa of

AXS TV AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat sport ...

was more complimentary, writing that Duff "rises above the synths to emerge as the dance floor queen she's been since the release of her 2007 album, ''Dignity''."

Release history

References

*''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 6th Edition, 1996

External links

* {{authority control 1987 singles 1987 songs Fleetwood Mac songs Songs written by Christine McVie Song recordings produced by Richard Dashut Music videos directed by Dominic Sena Songs written by Eddy Quintela Warner Records singles Hilary Duff songs RCA Records singles Sony Music singles 1980s ballads Number-one singles in Poland Rock ballads