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"Beautiful Child"
"Beautiful Child"
Song by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Tusk
Released	1979
Recorded	1978–1979
Genre	Soft rock
Length	5:21
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Stevie Nicks
Producer(s)	Fleetwood Mac, Richard Dashut, Ken Caillat

"Beautiful Child" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1979. Composed and sung by vocalist Stevie Nicks, it was one of her five songs that appeared on the Tusk album. Despite not appearing on the accompanying Tusk Tour, the song resurfaced several years later on their 2003-2004 Say You Will Tour.^[1]

Background

Nicks wrote "Beautiful Child" on a Sunday around midnight and finished the song before dawn. In an interview several months before its release, Nicks described Beautiful Child as "a lullaby" and her "most special song".^[2] None of the band members or producers originally asked Nicks what the song was about, believing that the lyrical content was too personal.^[3] However, Nicks revealed in 2013 that "Beautiful Child" was written about her affair with Derek Taylor, who formerly served as the road manager for The Beatles and was 16 years older than she.^[4] Nicks commented that the affair was brief since Taylor was married at the time.^[5] In the 2015 liner notes to Tusk, Nicks recalled that Taylor would recite poetry to her "in his beautiful English voice" and call her a beautiful child, a comment that irked Nicks.^[6] The lyrics detail Nicks' final night with Taylor at The Beverly Hills Hotel and portray a younger girl conveying her love to an older gentleman.^[3]

During the recording of "Beautiful Child", a chorus effect was applied to John McVie's bass guitar. A bass synthesiser was also added to supplement the lower frequencies of the bass guitar by playing an octave below the instrument. These instruments enter at the end of verse one along with a snare drum. Producer Ken Caillat applied a reverse echo to the snare drum hits by recording the instrument backwards and printing the echo on two separate tracks so that the echo preceded each snare drum hit.^[3]

Rather than record the backing vocals in the same room, Nicks, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham instead sang their parts individually in an echo chamber situated in Studio D at The Village Recorder. These parts were doubled and faded in and out throughout the song using the studio's mixing console.^[3]

Soon after the band recorded the song, UNESCO declared that 1979 was the International Year of the Child, a proclamation intended to promote children's rights by addressing malnutrition, maternal outcomes, and educational disparities, particularly in developing countries.^[7] A Music for UNICEF Concert was held at the beginning of 1979 to coincide with the International Year of the Child, although Fleetwood Mac were unable to attend. Nicks instead donated "Beautiful Child" and all of its royalties to the UN fundraising campaign.^[2]^[3]

Personnel

Stevie Nicks – lead vocals
Lindsey Buckingham – guitars, backing vocals
Christine McVie – keyboards, backing vocals
John McVie – bass guitar
Mick Fleetwood – drums

References

^ Howe, Zoë (2015). Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams, & Rumours. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-4683-1066-5.
^ ^a ^b Loder, Kurt (13 February 1979). "Circus Weekly Magazine (02/13/1979), Mac Update; Welch De-Evolves". The Blue Letter Archives. Archived from the original on 30 December 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Caillat, Ken; Rojas, Hernan (2019). Get Tusked: The Inside Story of Fleetwood Mac's Most Anticipated Album. Guilford, Connecticut: Backbeat Books. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-1-4930-5983-6.
^ "The Secret Beatles Link in a Classic Fleetwood Mac song". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
^ "'It affected me very much': Stevie Nicks on the Beatles connection in Fleetwood Mac's 'Beautiful Child' – Stevie Nicks". Stevie Nicks Info. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
^ Irvin, Jim (2016). Tusk (2015 Remastered) (Liner Notes). Fleetwood Mac. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Records Inc. p. 17. Publisher Warner Bros #2HS-3350.
^ "International Year of the Child". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 4 March 2024.

Bibliography

Caillat, Ken; Rojas, Hernan (2019). Get Tusked: The Inside Story of Fleetwood Mac's Most Anticipated Album. Guilford, Connecticut: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1-4930-5983-6.
Howe, Zoë (2015). Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams, & Rumours. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-4683-1066-5.