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The album that has historically topped just about any “overdue for a reissue” list is finally due to drop off the top of that ranking. “Buckingham Nicks,” the legendary album that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks released as a duo in 1973 shortly before joining Fleetwood Mac, is set to come out in all formats on Sept. 19, after being out of print in any format in the U.S. since the early 1980s.
And, yes, this will mark the album’s official debut in the CD format (!), let alone as a streaming or digital download release.
Rhino, the reissue component of Warner Music, says the album has been sourced from the original analog masters for the multiple iterations of vinyl that will be available, and from high-resolution digital files for the CD and streaming/download versions.
To answer one key fan question: No bonus material is being included on the reissue.
A special 180-gram vinyl pressing on the Rhino High Fidelity imprint, cut by Kevin Gray from the original masters, will be limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies and available at Rhino.com as well as a few select stores. Another special version, limited to 2,000 copies, will include two replica 7-inch singles featuring the original single mixes of “Crying In The Night” b/w “Stephanie” and “Don’t Let Me Down Again” b/w “Races Are Run.”
But there is no official limit on the myriad other vinyl versions that will be available in stores, including color variations including Custard (Amazon), Baby Pink (indie stores), Violet (Books A Million), and Baby Blue (general retail).
There hasn’t been much good explanation over the decades for why the album has remained out of print. In interviews in the early 2010s, both Nicks and Buckingham insisted the project was about to finally be reissued, and that there were no major hangups — yet the possibility of a 40th anniversary reissue passed, and then so did the prospect of even a 50th anniversary edition. But better 52 years after the original than never.
Although Nicks has said in interviews over the years that she didn’t feel entirely comfortable doffing her top along with her counterpart for the famously joint-topless cover (shot by Jimmy Wachtel, brother of her longtime solo-career guitarist Waddy Wachtel), she has never indicated that this would stand in the way of a reissue, And, indeed, fan speculation that the album might finally come out with a different jacket proved to be just that.
The “Buckingham Nicks” album is considered to be on a par with, or at least close in quality to, the records that the duo went on to make with Fleetwood Mac, starting with 1975’s “Fleetwood Mac,” even if its songs have only intermittently been revived by either of them in live performance.
Reflecting the ongoing cult status of the album, last year, the duo of Madison Cunningham and Andrew Bird did a song-for-song remake of the entire project, naturally titled “Cunningham Bird.”
