Tango in The Night - Album History

Album History

Tango in the Night is the band's second biggest selling studio album after the phenomenally successful Rumours (1977), released 10 years previously. The intervening albums, Tusk (1979) and Mirage (1982), although big sellers in key territories, had not matched their predecessors' huge success. Tango in the Night was a worldwide hit with several singles from the album becoming popular all over the world. "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" in particular are now considered classic hits of the late 1980s and they continue to appear on retrospective albums of that decade.

The album was very successful in the United States, where it peaked at #7 and was certified triple platinum for selling 3,000,000 copies. Four singles from the album reached the Billboard Top 20: "Big Love" (#5), "Little Lies" (#4), "Everywhere" (#14) and "Seven Wonders" (#19). The album was particularly successful in the United Kingdom where it reached #1 three times during 1987-88 and it is the seventh biggest selling album of the 1980s, being certified 8x Platinum (2.4 million copies), and it is still currently one of the UK's Top 50 best selling albums of all time. Three singles were Top 10 hits in the UK: "Big Love" (#9), "Little Lies" (#5) and "Everywhere" (#4). A total of six singles were eventually taken from the album over a period of 15 months. The album has spent 115 weeks in the Top 75 of the UK Album Chart.

Tango in the Night was the final studio album released by the 'classic' line-up consisting of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood, before Buckingham's departure from the band in the summer of 1987 for a 10-year hiatus. This line-up did reconvene, however, in 1993 for a special one-off performance of "Don't Stop" for the newly elected US President Bill Clinton, and again for the 1997 live album and tour The Dance. In 2003, the band minus Christine McVie, recorded and released the album, Say You Will.

With pressure being placed on Buckingham to keep the project focused and moving forward, things came to a head shortly after the release of Tango in the Night when the guitarist announced his departure from the band shortly before their scheduled tour in 1987. Following Buckingham's sudden departure, two musicians were drafted in to replace him: Rick Vito and Billy Burnette, who proceeded to complete the Tango Tour in 1987-1988 with the rest of the band. Aspects of this troubled era of Fleetwood Mac's history are frankly documented in interviews with all members of the band, old and new, in two BBC documentaries: Fleetwood Mac at 21, first aired in the UK in 1988, and in Rock Family Trees, which was produced in 1996.

The distinctive cover art for the album was a painting by Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong which was hanging in Buckingham's home. It is a homage to the 19th Century French painter Henri Rousseau, emulating his colorful jungle theme works such as The Snake Charmer and The Repast of the Lion. It was also used as the cover to the single release of "Big Love", the first single released from the album.