"Nightbird" by Stevie Nicks

Song#:  1734
Date:  12/17/1983
Debut:  63
Peak:  33
Weeks:  12
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  Nicks was doing well with her second solo album The Wild Heart. It reached #5 thanks to a pair of hits - "Stand Back" (#5) and "If Anyone Falls" (#14). She kept the ball rolling by releasing this third single that featured Sandy Stewart on vocals. It would get into the Top 40, but that would be it. The song did about the same at AC (#39) and at Rock (#32). It would be the final single released from the LP. While the overall results for the album were good, it couldn't match the performance of her #1 solo debut Bella Donna. That album had four Top 40 singles with two of them placing in the Top 10.

ReduxReview:  As much as I like the album, it wasn't as singles-deep as Bella Donna. Despite that, to me there were a couple of other songs that I thought were better candidates for singles than this one. I like this tune, but it sounds like an outtake from Fleetwood Mac. It seems weird because a good chunk of her solo work doesn't necessarily sound like the tunes she wrote for Mac. I can't even imaging Mac doing "Stand Back" or "Edge of Seventeen." I think that is good thing as she created her own persona and style outside of the band. But this song is certainly Mac-ish. It's lovely, but not a very good single.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  The first single from Nicks' debut album was her duet with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," a #2 smash was co-written by Petty. Nicks and Petty teamed up once again for The Wild Heart with the song "I Will Run to You." Written by Petty, the song wasn't released as a single, but it got enough airplay at Rock radio to place it at #35 on that chart. Two other non-single tracks from the album would also do well at Rock. "Enchanted" would hit #12 and "Nothing Ever Changes" would go to #19.

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