6 of Stevie Nicks’ Favorite Songs

Nobody creates in a vacuum. Even the most singular voices in music have to get inspiration from somewhere.

Back in 2011, Stevie Nicks was invited to participate in BBC Radio 2’s “Tracks of My Years,” while promoting her album, In Your Dreams. During the program, the Fleetwood Mac singer listed some of her favorite songs and explained how they have impacted her own musical journey.

If you’ve ever wondered what the White Witch herself is listening to, check out her playlist of favorites below.

1. “Witchy Woman” (the Eagles)

Nicks’ love for the Eagles is well-documented. She and Don Henley would become close friends and even enter into a short-lived relationship. All of this considered, it makes sense that the first song that Nicks would choose would come from the West Coast rockers.

“The Eagles were famous before Lindsey and I moved to Los Angeles,” Nicks said while introducing the song. “We drove to L.A., and I remember listening to that song, thinking what a great song it was, and of course, I’m sure as all women my age did at that point, we were all hoping that we would actually be the witchy woman.”

2. “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” (Kate Bush)

Nicks was ahead of the Kate Bush curve, having dubbed “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” as one of her favorite songs back in 2011 – well before its Stranger Things resurgence. “‘Running Up That Hill’ was one of those songs that, when I first heard it, I went, ‘Oh I wanna record that song someday,’” she said of Bush. “Every once in a while, we do it, but you finally smarten up and go, ‘I can’t really do that song better than Kate Bush did, so I’m not gonna do it.’”

3. “Same Old Lang Syne” (Dan Fogelberg)

Dan Fogelberg wrote this song after bumping into an old girlfriend on Christmas Eve. The two shared a six-pack of beer and reminisced for a few hours before parting ways again. Fogelberg sings We drank a toast to innocence / We drank a toast to now / And tried to reach beyond the emptiness / But neither one knew how.

The track appears on Fogelberg’s album The Innocent Age, released in 1981. Elsewhere on the same album is Fogelberg’s signature “Leader of the Band.”

4. “Somebody’s Baby” (Jackson Browne)

“Somebody’s Baby” was penned by Jackson Browne and Danny Kortchmar for the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The track is Browne’s last top 10 hit to date. Nicks has also said in the past that “That Girl Could Sing” by Browne is another favorite of hers. “I always wanted to think that, even though I didn’t know Jackson Browne at that point, that he wrote that about me because, ‘Oh, I’m such a cool presence,’” she once said.

5. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

Nicks’ love for Tom Petty is also well-documented. The singer has long admitted that she toyed around with the idea of leaving Fleetwood Mac to become a Heartbreaker. Though she has cited a number of Petty songs as favorites, her choice for this particular playlist was “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”

“Don’t Come Around Here No More” appears on Petty’s 1985 album Southern Accents. Upon its release, the track was seen as radical music evolution. “I wanted to make a single that sounded like nothing anybody had ever done,” Petty once said.

6. “Cry Me a River” (Justin Timberlake)

As a testament to the wide breadths of Nicks’ musical taste, she included Justin Timberlake’s solo hit “Cry Me a River” in her favorites playlist. Even the reining Queen of Rock is not immune to Timberlake’s charms, it seems.

“Cry Me a River” was the second single from Timberlake’s debut solo album, Justified. The lyrics are said to have been inspired by the former boy bander’s relationship with Britney Spears. You were my sun, you were my earth / But you didn’t know all the ways I loved you, no / So you took a chance and made other plans, he sings.

Stevie Nicks (Photo: LiPo Ching)