winter's really here now..

#1 12-21-2014, 12:11 AM

in honor of the winter solstice.

i remember when this aired live and the song was out.

who loves???

http://vimeo.com/14425066

PenguinHead · #2 12-21-2014, 02:35 AM

...and the blankets I should wash.

I love this performance, especially since it's so rare. Why it didn't make the Wild Heart tour setlist ( or any other set list) is a mystery.

It was a strange choice for a single. I have the promo picture sleeve 45. I've never heard it on the radio.

Macfan4life · #3 12-21-2014, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe

in honor of the winter solstice.

i remember when this aired live and the song was out.

who loves???

http://vimeo.com/14425066

I remember this too. I was 13 staying up late on a Saturday night for SNL. This was the second song played after midnight and I was holding my tape recorder up to the TV. The next day we went to the mall for after xmas sales and I kept playing the tape in our new 1983 Nissan Stanza.

Memories

I was surprised to hear this was the next single. Actually I was very disappointed because I wanted the album to continue success. While this TV version is awesome with the piano and singing, the album version is a dud IMHO. I would have loved to have seen Nothing Ever Changes or Enchanted as the next single. Having no video for the song also helped Wild Heart fall from the charts.

Little known fact: For one week (or two) Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie had solo hits in the same Top 40. I think Nightbird peaked at 33 and then fell. About this time Got a hold on me landed on the Top 40 charts somewhere in the low 30s. I remember listening to Casey Kasem to monitor Nightbird success and Christine's new song and he commented how rare it was to have members of a group have solo records on the same top 40.. Its happened before and he mentioned the times. This was early February 1984.

Phoenixgypsy · #4 12-21-2014, 09:24 AM

Thanks for sharing that little known chart fact! Very cool. I really like this song...but I don't think it was a good choice as a single. I agree that there seemed to be better choices that might have helped the album continue to do well on the charts.

**SisterNightroad** · #5 12-21-2014, 09:44 AM

Stevie said in various interviews at the time that Nightbird was her favourite song on The Wild heart album, since she wrote it for Robin I think she chose it for personal and emotional reasons.
Even if the album was full of better commercial choices (Enchanted, Nothing ever changes, I will run to you, Sable on blond), I think Nighbird was the right choice for her at the time to honour Robin's death.
She could still had promoted it better though, but that's a problem that repeated itself various times in her career.

MikeInNV · #6 12-21-2014, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Little known fact: For one week (or two) Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie had solo hits in the same Top 40. I think Nightbird peaked at 33 and then fell. About this time Got a hold on me landed on the Top 40 charts somewhere in the low 30s. I remember listening to Casey Kasem to monitor Nightbird success and Christine's new song and he commented how rare it was to have members of a group have solo records on the same top 40.. Its happened before and he mentioned the times. This was early February 1984.

Off topic, but I remember Casey reporting about the members of Genesis being in the Top 40 at the same time as the group. I believe Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Mike Rutherford (as Mike and the Mechanics) all had a hit in the Top 40 the same time as Genesis did, so that was a really big deal, even though Gabriel wasn't a member of the group at the time. Can you imagine Stevie, Chris, Lindsey, and Fleetwood Mac all having a Top 40 hit at the same time?

Jondalar · #7 12-21-2014, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I remember this too. I was 13 staying up late on a Saturday night for SNL. This was the second song played after midnight and I was holding my tape recorder up to the TV. The next day we went to the mall for after xmas sales and I kept playing the tape in our new 1983 Nissan Stanza.

Memories

I was surprised to hear this was the next single. Actually I was very disappointed because I wanted the album to continue success. While this TV version is awesome with the piano and singing, the album version is a dud IMHO. I would have loved to have seen Nothing Ever Changes or Enchanted as the next single. Having no video for the song also helped Wild Heart fall from the charts.

Little known fact: For one week (or two) Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie had solo hits in the same Top 40. I think Nightbird peaked at 33 and then fell. About this time Got a hold on me landed on the Top 40 charts somewhere in the low 30s. I remember listening to Casey Kasem to monitor Nightbird success and Christine's new song and he commented how rare it was to have members of a group have solo records on the same top 40.. Its happened before and he mentioned the times. This was early February 1984.

Nightbird was the only real choice she had for a next single.

Macfan4life · #8 12-21-2014, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeInNV

Off topic, but I remember Casey reporting about the members of Genesis being in the Top 40 at the same time as the group. I believe Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Mike Rutherford (as Mike and the Mechanics) all had a hit in the Top 40 the same time as Genesis did, so that was a really big deal, even though Gabriel wasn't a member of the group at the time. Can you imagine Stevie, Chris, Lindsey, and Fleetwood Mac all having a Top 40 hit at the same time?

It almost happened. Lindsey's Go Insane entered the to 40 in early summer 1984. Chris's Love will show us how just fell off the charts.

The thing I don't like about Nightbird is the drum machine. It cheapens the sound and mood of the song. That is what makes the SNL version so good. Real drums and a piano. The album version sounds like a cheap casio keyboard from the 80's LOL

bombaysaffires · #9 12-21-2014, 12:37 PM

I always wondered about the very end when she kind of slinks away from Lori and moves backwards to Waddy and he says something to her. She has this smile plastered on her face but something is going on. Wish I was better at reading lips to get what he says to her.

MikeInNV · #10 12-21-2014, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

It almost happened. Lindsey's Go Insane entered the to 40 in early summer 1984. Chris's Love will show us how just fell off the charts.

The Genesis thing was all in the same week.

David · #11 12-22-2014, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jondalar

Nightbird was the only real choice she had for a next single.

Stevie and her Wild Heart band were in rehearsal for another leg of the tour in 1984. It was going to start at a day-long festival at the Anaheim Stadium, which Bowie was going to headline. Julian Lennon was signed as the opening act for Stevie's tour—his song "Too Late for Goodbyes" was a hit. I guess the recording for the third album changed Stevie's plans. Who knows what we might have heard in 1984 if that great tour had been extended: "Mirror Mirror," "Rock a Little," "Nothing Ever Changes" as a set opener, maybe even "All the Beautiful Worlds."

PenguinHead · #12 12-22-2014, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SisterNightroad

She could still had promoted it better though, but that's a problem that repeated itself various times in her career.

In what manner would she have to promote it? She didn't put it in her set list. It was barely a single - tentatively released only as a promo single. I never heard it played on the radio then or now. I'm surprised it actually made the charts.

**SisterNightroad** · #13 12-22-2014, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

In what manner would she have to promote it? She didn't put it in her set list. It was barely a single - tentatively released only as a promo single. I never heard it played on the radio then or now. I'm surprised it actually made the charts.

Making a good video for sure! She just did those two appearances on Saturday Night Live and Solid Gold for the song.
In the early eighties MTV actually transmitted music and a video on heavy rotation would have surely helped the song to at least chart in the top 20.

Macfan4life · #14 12-22-2014, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SisterNightroad

Making a good video for sure! She just did those two appearances on Saturday Night Live and Solid Gold for the song.
In the early eighties MTV actually transmitted music and a video on heavy rotation would have surely helped the song to at least chart in the top 20.

Yes MTV was at its peak in 1984. Very few popular songs were in the top 30 without a music video. They went hand in hand.

**SisterNightroad** · #15 12-22-2014, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Yes MTV was at its peak in 1984. Very few popular songs were in the top 30 without a music video. They went hand in hand.

Yes, it's difficult to imagine famous 80s songs like Don't come around here no more without their musical video.
I think If anyone falls is one of those songs that would have been far less great without a proper video. I can picture Stand back becoming the huge hit it was even without video, but If anyone falls is just a good song, not legendary, Nightbird in my opinion is even better.