Fleetwood Mac – Albatross

Albatross is an instrumental from Fleetwood Mac…the 60’s version of the band with the great guitar player Peter Green. I first heard about the song in a book. The Beatles were recording Abbey Road and they played this song constantly through the sessions. You can hear the reverb effect used on Sun King by Lennon that resembles Albatross. 

When this song was released, Fleetwood Mac was six years away from their pop conversion of the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham era. The lineup on this track was Peter Green (vocals, guitar), John McVie (bass), Danny Kirwan (guitar), and Mick Fleetwood (drums). The song was released on November 22, 1968, with ‘Jigsaw Puzzle Blues’ (written by the band’s James Kirwan) on the B-side.

It remains one of the band’s most recognizable songs from their early blues- period. The song peaked at #1 on the UK Charts, #45 in Canada, and #4 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 Charts (per Wiki) in 1969. Peter Green wrote this song. Albatross was re-released in 1973 peaking at #2 on the UK Charts. In 1989, it was released again and peaked at #96 on the UK Charts…and in 2020-2023 it was released yet again and peaked at #8 on the UK Singles Charts. The song keeps on giving. 

Funny enough…this song remains their only #1 UK song! That surprises me with the later commercial success they had. Few bands could evolve like they did. Genesis is one and David Bowie is another one that pulled off different sounds but remained popular. 

The title came from a bird called The Albatross, which sailors regarded as a sign of bad luck. That is where the saying “like an Albatross around your neck” came from. Green was also influenced by the Santo and Johnny song Sleep Walk…which you can hear that sound in this. Green also said some of it came from notes that Clapton would play with the John Mayall Bluesbreakers on the song The Last Meal but just slowed down. Peter Green would replace Eric in that band. 

Peter Green remains one of my favorite guitar players. My admiration for him has grown through the years. Sleep Walk from Santo and Johnny remains one of my favorite instrumentals and I can hear it in this clearly…makes me like it more. 

Danny Kirwan: Well, that was Monsieur Peter Green – I called him Monsieur, you know – and I played with him. On “Albatross” he told me what to do, all the bits I had to play.

George Harrison: “So we said, ‘Let’s be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.’ It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin.”

Peter Green talking about LSD and Albatross

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

49 thoughts on “Fleetwood Mac – Albatross”

  1. I feel badly for folks who only know the mid-70s pop band Fleetwood Mac and not the Peter Green eras – the original blues band and the later 3 guitar band. Green was the master of the slow blues. His guitar sings and cries. He was so good that, when he replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, John Mayall said, “Don’t worry. We got somebody better.” B.B. King said, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”

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    1. I really didn’t know much about Peter Green until a few years ago and a friend showed me a documentary about him….I was blown away by his tone and playing.

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    1. I had no clue it kept coming back like that…that is pretty remarkable for an instrumental. If you listen to Sun King by The Beatles…it’s written all over it.

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    1. I love this song and I can’t figure out why it didn’t hit over here. Green will always have my total respect…he was special.

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    1. I love this Fleetwood Mac…because of my age I started out on the later version…it was like finding gold with this version. A few months ago I saw a documentary on Green…I was won over instantly.

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      1. Since I started doing this blog trip, this particular subject comes up more times than not. Green and post-Green. Not the same at all. Nothing against the post stuff but the Green Mac is what grabs me. Big time,

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      2. Yea…Genesis went through something similiar CB I would say… The good thing is…the first older FM post I made…some had no clue!

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      3. I stayed with Genesis for a while after Pete left. They still had the majority of the original members so the sound was basically the same just different song writing. It was more commercially friendly like the new Mac.
        I’m a bit of a Peter Green freak

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      4. After seeing the documentary….and of all songs CB… The Green Manalishi just grabbed me completely. I love his blues so don’t get me wrong…but I thought…this guy thought on different levels than other songwriters and players….if that makes sense.

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      5. Totally get you on the “different levels” thing. Like I said he has been a subject of a lot of conversations here. Back to his playing. He has a crisp sound. I’m sure BB King was an influence. He has a lot of good stuff. I’d agree with Obbverse, a little uneven at times but lots of gold to be mined.

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  7. Danny Kirwin’s quote about how he had to play the bits to Peter’s specifications and then later Peter’s talk about taking the LSD trips makes me think of Brian Wilson. Never knew Peter took over to EC in the Bluesbreakers. This kind of blues music puts me in a very peaceful frame of mind. Good tune and cool that it keeps coming back to audiences. What PG says about the Hawaiian aspects to it reminds me of an excellent tune that The Taj Mahal Swingin’ Sextet does on their recent release, called, “Twilight in Hawaii”:

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    1. Oh yes….there is a lot in that one with the Hawaiian style! I thought of Sleep Walk when I heard Albatross.
      Green has my total respect…I just wonder what he would have done in the 70s if he could have kept well.

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      1. When I’m listening to “Albatross”, I can literally see one of these majestic birds before my eyes, and it makes me feel like I’m floating. There isn’t too much happening in this tune, but what is happening is just plain gorgeous.

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    2. Here, back in the day when TV programmes needed a filler- a sports event finished early or something like that- they would play a clip of ‘Albatross’ with actual albatrosses soaring in the black and white skies. So peaceful.

      Wow, different times. Now every second is sold for advertisements.

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  10. I graduated 8th grade in 1970 and got a stereo with the money people gave me. I remember finding WLS-FM and hearing it for the first time. Blew my mind… it was just gorgeous. I wanted to get the album, but it was like permanently sold out, and they weren’t selling it as a single. Then it slipped off the charts and I forgot about it until I saw it on YouTube thirty-some years later. The more-recent Fleetwood Mac couldn’t hold a candle to the one that had Peter Green heading it up.

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    1. I totally agree with you… I really like this older version…more edge and more meaningful. I’m glad you caught up with the song again!

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  11. Bear with me here Max, this comment is going to take some randomish turns. This one resonated with me so much then, and still does. You can definitely hear the ‘Sleep Walk’ influence. There is a great version of the song sung by Renee Olstead, which to me actually adds to the original- that is a real rarity for me. What we first hear usually remains the template for most cover versions. ‘Albatross’ is one of two I’ve specified to be played at my service/wake/celebration when I kick the bucket, that’s how much it touched me. Peter Green is such a loss, but he went off somewhere else decades before he died. I bought his album ‘In The Skies’ in the late 70s or so, and it was a let down, only because you knew now there was simply less he had to give. I liked ‘Slabo Day’ but… Mind expanding drugs can be mind diminishing too.

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      1. Yep, obb’s fine- I’ve been called odd in the past, so obb IS fine. 🙄 Thanks, I’ll delve in deeper later. I was listening to ‘In The Skies’ as I was going through the rest of the emails and, sadly, I still feel short changed.

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      2. Again I hear you. His Splinter Group has some good stuff. You’ll just have to dig. I was on a PG solo jag a while back so it was fresh in my head. Another very good guy I know found some good stuff. Snowy White is similar and has some very tasty music.

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    2. So you are a FAN…I totally get it. I told CB that the song that really made me look at him and become a fan is The Green Manalishi. It was different and showed he had many outlets as a songwriter and guitar player. It just amazed me.

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      1. The Green thing is why I never was as taken with Rumours FMac; I’d heard the version that spoke to me more than the ‘Go Your Own Way’ era that worked out so well for them. Just a damn pity he blew his mind.

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      2. I totally understand that…I was floored when I found this version of the band…so I felt that way after I found the original. This was real edgy stuff.

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  13. I had heard this wonderful soothing tune many times before, but never realised it was by Fleetwood Mac. I’m surprised when it was released too since it seems to have a maturity and mesh of sound more modern, intricate and technical. Great selection Max!

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  14. It’s a beautiful composition. I was vaguely familiar with early Fleetwood Mac, as I first learned about them in the early 70s when I heard their beautiful song “Show Me a Smile” on the radio and instantly loved it. Sung by Christine McVie, the song was from their 1971 album Future Games. Sadly, I never learned about Peter Green until he died in 2020.

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  15. Peter Green was a one-off. Nobody like him before or since, for feeling and sensitivity in his music. My favourite of his – not from Fleetwood Mac but from when he was with John Mayall – is The Supernatural.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DsFnQqN8uk

    The reason that this did better in the UK than other Fleetwood mac songs is most likely to do with the way music then was presented to the public. Mostly singles were played on the mainstream radio (BBC, unless you listened to the few pirate stations) and schedules were pretty tight at the BBC with the more popular stuff getting played more frequently. Some bands’ live radio performances made it onto radio, but only in their own slots, not on the mainstream. Early Fleetwood Mac was mostly blues, then a bit of pschedelia – neither of which were greatly popular with the BBC. I think this song, Albatross, appealed to a lot of different types of people and was probably regarded as ‘easy listening’ more than anything else.

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    1. I would have LOVED to hear Pirate Radio back then. It made bands like The Who very popular because I’ve read that the BBC would not play them as much.
      I’ll end up posting that Mayall song…that is really cool.

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