Top 10 Stevie Nicks Songs

Stevie Nicks has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice. Once, for her contributions alongside Fleetwood Mac and a second time for her solo efforts. The double honor is a testament to just how singular Nicks is in the songwriting community – one ceremony was not enough to properly fete the number of hits she has delivered.

We laud Nicks in our own way, by compiling all her top songs in one place. Below, we’ve ranked the Top 10 songs from Nicks’ catalog, both as part of Fleetwood Mac and her solo albums. Find American Songwriter’s picks below.

10. “Gypsy”

“Gypsy” is one of the biggest hits Nicks ever wrote for Fleetwood Mac. She reminisces on life before fame in this track, assuring fans that the gypsy she once was is still very much inside of her. She was just a wish / And her memory is all that is left for you now, she sings.

9. “Bella Donna”

“Bella Donna” reintroduced Nicks to the world. It was not only her debut solo single but it became the title track to her first album. In the song, she paints a portrait of a woman who is threatening to fade away.

“Bella Donna’ is a term of endearment I use and the title is about making a lot of decisions in my life, making a change based on the turmoil in my soul,” Nicks once told Rolling Stone (quote via Far Out Magazine). “You get to a certain age where you want to slow down, be quieter. The title song was basically a warning to myself and a question to others. I’m thirty-three years old, and my life has been very up and down in the last six years.”

8. “Planets of the Universe”

“Planets of the Universe” is one of the many songs Nicks wrote about Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks penned this tune while working on Rumours, but it didn’t make it past the demo stage until 2001 when it appeared on Nicks’ album Trouble in Shangri-La. The planets of the universe go their way / Not astounded by the sun or moon, she sings.

7. “Gold Dust Woman”

No one could embody “Gold Dust Woman” quite like Nicks. Haunting and witchy, the song is a “symbolic look at somebody going through a bad relationship, and doing a lot of drugs, and trying to just make it, trying to live, trying to get through it to the next thing,” Nicks told Spin Magazine in 1997.

6. “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”

“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” remains Nicks’ highest-charting song to date, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though the song was originally penned by Tom Petty for use on a Heartbreakers album, producer Jimmy Iovine conjured up the idea for Nicks to come in and record it. It turned out to be a brilliant move, with the song setting Nicks on her path toward a second Hall of Fame induction.

5. “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?”

Nicks has called “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?” the most “committed song I ever wrote.” The heartbreaking ode was written in response to Joe Walsh’s “Song for Emma,” which he wrote to honor the memory of his three-year-old daughter who died in a car accident. You can feel how deeply Walsh’s loss impacted Nicks through her delivery of this song.

4.  “Stand Back”

A just-married Nicks was listening to Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” and humming an alternate melody while on the way to her honeymoon. What started as something to pass the time became the demo for “Stand Back.” After Nicks told the story to Prince, the rock icon himself came in to record some of his signature synthesizers. On top of this song landing Nicks a spot in the top 5 on Billboard‘s Hot 100, she has also remarked it is one of her favorites to perform live.

3. “Landslide”

“Landslide” is a once-in-a-generation song. When you find yourself at the precipice of change, no song is a better guide. Nicks ponders the aging process and the ever-shifting tides of life in a simple, yet powerful way. In the liner notes of this song, she credits a trip to Aspen for having inspired this iconic track: “looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us … at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways.”

2. “Edge of Seventeen”

Despite “Edge of Seventeen” being an unrelenting rocker, the song actually has morbid inspirations. Nicks wrote this song following the death of her uncle John and the murder of John Lennon. “The white-winged dove in the song is a spirit that is leaving a body, and I felt a great loss at how both Johns were taken,” she recalled in 1981. Though the song stems from sadness, Nicks wanted it to have the energy of “moving on.” It remains her signature and reminds the world why she was dubbed the reigning Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

1. “Silver Springs”

Though “Silver Springs” doesn’t appear on the original version of Rumours, it has slowly become a standout track thanks to its inclusion on the deluxe edition of the record and a particularly seething rendition from Nicks in 1997. The latter performance saw the singer address the song’s inspiration, Buckingham, head-on. While staring at her former partner in the eye she sings, in a near spell-like manner, You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.

(Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage)