Fleetwood Mac Albums in Order: A Complete Timeline Explained

Why a Fleetwood Mac Albums in Order music map?

I have always been drawn to their line-up shifts and their stylistic swerves. From the early blues years under Peter Green to the global pop success of the Buckingham and Nicks era, this is a band whose story is worth mapping literally. That is why I made the Fleetwood Mac Albums In Order Music Map, a tube-style visual timeline showing the seventeen studio albums in order, the line-up changes and the credited musicians on each.

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1. Fleetwood Mac, The Early Blues Years (1968 to 1974)

1. Fleetwood Mac (1968)
2. Mr. Wonderful (1968)
3. Then Play On (1969)
4. Kiln House (1970)
5. Future Games (1971)
6. Bare Trees (1972)
7. Penguin (1973)
8. Mystery to Me (1973)
9. Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974)

This period runs from founding guitarist Peter Green through the later arrivals of Danny Kirwan, Christine McVie and Bob Welch. Nine albums in six years, and on the map it is the busiest stretch of the whole thing for line-up churn.

2. Fleetwood Mac, The Classic Line-Up (1975 to 1987)

10. Fleetwood Mac (1975)
11. Rumours (1977)
12. Tusk (1979)
13. Mirage (1982)
14. Tango in the Night (1987)

With the arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks the band entered their most famous phase. Rumours remains one of the best-selling albums ever made. Five albums, one line-up, and on the map five parallel lines running dead straight, which after the previous section is almost startling to look at.

3. Transitions and Experimentation (1990 to 2003)

15. Behind the Mask (1990)
16. Time (1995)
17. Say You Will (2003)

Buckingham had left after Tango in the Night in 1987, so this era opens without him. Billy Burnette and Rick Vito come in for Behind the Mask, Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason for Time, and Christine McVie steps away after that. The results divided fans, but they add depth to the shape of the discography.

4. Who was with who in Fleetwood Mac, album by album

When I am researching a new map I build one column per studio album and one row per credited musician before a single line gets drawn. With Fleetwood Mac that grid does something I have seen on very few of the seventy-odd discographies I have mapped: it splits cleanly into eras, and you can watch each one arrive and leave.

Jeremy Spencer is on four of the early records and then gone entirely. Danny Kirwan arrives on Then Play On in 1969 and runs to Bare Trees in 1972, four albums. Bob Welch picks up almost exactly where Kirwan stops, from Future Games in 1971 through to Heroes Are Hard to Find in 1974, five records covering the least discussed stretch of the catalogue. Bob Weston runs alongside him for Penguin and Mystery to Me, both in 1973, and then stops.

Then the 1975 album arrives and two new lines start at the same station, which happens nowhere else on this map. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks both begin there, and it marks the exact point the band stops being a British blues group.

Nicks then does something the map makes obvious and the histories tend to blur. Her line runs through Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, Tango in the Night and Behind the Mask, disappears completely for Time in 1995, and returns for Say You Will in 2003. Buckingham's line does not break in the same way, but it thins: on Time he is credited only with backing vocals on one track rather than as a playing member, so the print draws him there as a reduced line. 1995 is the one station where both of the 1975 arrivals step back at once.

5. The two lines that never break

John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are the only continuous lines on the print. Seventeen stations each, 1968 to 2003, through every personnel change around them. On the map they read almost like the track itself rather than passengers on it, which is the visual joke the band's name was always making.

Christine McVie comes closest to matching them without quite doing it. She is credited on sixteen of the seventeen, and the map has to show her under two names: she appears as Christine Perfect on Mr. Wonderful in 1968 and again on Then Play On in 1969, before the credits switch to Christine McVie from Kiln House in 1970 onwards. That is the kind of detail that only surfaces when you work from sleeve credits rather than from a band history, and it is one of my favourite things on this particular print.

6. Peter Green leaves, and then reappears twice

Peter Green's line is the most interesting shape on the whole map. He is on the 1968 debut, Mr. Wonderful and Then Play On, and then the line stops when he leaves the band in 1970.

Except it does not stay stopped. Green appears again in the credits for Penguin in 1973, and once more on Tusk in 1979. On a written discography those two reappearances are footnotes years apart and easy to miss. Drawn as a line that breaks, restarts for one station, breaks again and restarts six years later, they become the most visually arresting thing on the print. He is far from the only one to do it, which is why I wrote separately about band members who left and came back.

7. The branch lines: one-off contributors

Anyone credited on a single record gets a branch line rather than a route running through the map, and Fleetwood Mac has some unusual ones.

Bob Brunning appears on the 1968 debut only, the original bassist caught in the credits before John McVie's line begins. Dave Walker appears once, on Penguin. And the USC Trojan Marching Band appears once, on Tusk in 1979, credited for horns and percussion, which remains the single most unexpected credit I have plotted on any music map.

The most unlikely name of all is Big Walter Horton. The Chicago blues harmonica player appears on Then Play On in 1969 and nowhere else in the catalogue, and he is not named on the sleeve at all.

8. Contested credits, and why they are on the map anyway

Five credits on this map are marked as contested, meaning the playing is documented but the sleeve does not name the musician. They are drawn with a different symbol so you can see exactly which ones they are, because pretending to a certainty the sources do not support would undermine everything else on the print.

Two of them belong to Christine McVie, for uncredited piano on Then Play On and uncredited keyboards on Kiln House, which is how her line starts earlier than the official record suggests. Peter Green's return on Penguin is a third. Sandra Elsdon's uncredited recorders on "Oh Well (Part 2)" is the fourth, and Big Walter Horton's harmonica is the fifth.

9. Legacy and Final Chapters

No new studio albums have appeared since 2003, though the band continued to tour into the 2010s. Christine McVie rejoined in 2014, and Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers joined for the later tours.

Want the whole story in one image? The Fleetwood Mac Albums Music Map is built for fans who care about both the design and the detail.

10. What the research turned up

The counts surprised me. Time in 1995 and Say You Will in 2003 are the two densest stations on the map, with thirteen credited musicians each. Rumours has five. The most famous record in the catalogue, and one of the best-selling albums ever made, carries one of the smallest casts on the whole print, level with Kiln House and Tango in the Night. Five people in a room, and the rest is history.

11. Fleetwood Mac Albums List (Chronological Table)

#	Album Title	Release Year
1	Fleetwood Mac	1968
2	Mr. Wonderful	1968
3	Then Play On	1969
4	Kiln House	1970
5	Future Games	1971
6	Bare Trees	1972
7	Penguin	1973
8	Mystery to Me	1973
9	Heroes Are Hard to Find	1974
10	Fleetwood Mac (White Album)	1975
11	Rumours	1977
12	Tusk	1979
13	Mirage	1982
14	Tango in the Night	1987
15	Behind the Mask	1990
16	Time	1995
17	Say You Will	2003

This chronological table of Fleetwood Mac albums lets fans and collectors track the studio discography in one place.

Sizes and Print Detail

The Fleetwood Mac discography art print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free, in A3, A2 and A1. A3 is £35, unframed only. A2 is £45 unframed or £125 in a black wood frame. A1 is £65 unframed or £175 framed.

Size	Dimensions	Inch format sold alongside it	Orientation
A3	420 x 297 mm	16 x 12 in	Landscape
A2	594 x 420 mm (23 x 16 in)	24 x 18 in	Landscape
A1	841 x 594 mm (33 x 23 in)	36 x 24 in	Landscape

The inch formats are separate formats rather than conversions of the metric sizes. A1 suits this one particularly well. Seventeen stations and 52 contributing artists rewards close reading, and the branch lines are much easier to follow at the larger size. Browse the full range in the music maps and band maps collection.

FAQ

How many albums has Fleetwood Mac released?

Seventeen studio albums between 1968 and 2003 are plotted on the map, from the self-titled debut through to Say You Will.

Is Fleetwood Mac in Chicago one of the studio albums?

No, and it is the record that most often trips people up when they count. Fleetwood Mac in Chicago is the double album the band cut at Chess Studios in January 1969 alongside Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and Big Walter Horton, first issued as Blues Jam in Chicago and reissued under the Chicago title in 1975. Some discographies count it and arrive at eighteen. I do not, because it is a collaborative blues session recorded with the Chess house musicians rather than a Fleetwood Mac studio album, and that is the same editorial rule that keeps English Rose off the map. The seventeen stations on the print run from the 1968 debut to Say You Will in 2003. Big Walter Horton does reach the map even so, as a branch line off Then Play On, where his harmonica is one of the five contested credits.

How many musicians are on the Fleetwood Mac discography map?

52 contributing artists, plus the 112 members of the USC Trojan Marching Band. The marching band counts as one line rather than 112, because the players are not individually credited on Tusk, and that is the rule I apply across all my maps. Two of the 52, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, appear on every album.

What is not on the map?

Live albums and compilations. The map plots studio records only, which is an editorial rule I apply right across the range, so Live, The Dance and the various greatest hits collections have no station on it. English Rose is left off for the same reason: it is a 1969 US release built from Mr. Wonderful tracks and singles rather than a new studio album.

Who were the original members of Fleetwood Mac?

The original 1967 line-up featured Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer and Bob Brunning, who was soon replaced by John McVie. Brunning appears on the 1968 debut only, which is why his line is a single-station branch on the map.

Why did Peter Green leave Fleetwood Mac?

Green left the band in 1970. What the map adds to that familiar story is that his credits do not stop there: he appears again on Penguin in 1973 and on Tusk in 1979, so his line breaks and restarts twice rather than simply ending.

Which Fleetwood Mac album has the most credited musicians?

Time in 1995 and Say You Will in 2003, with thirteen each. Penguin in 1973 is next with eleven. Rumours has five.

What is the Fleetwood Mac timeline?

The band's history spans more than five decades and several distinct line-ups. My Fleetwood Mac timeline map shows all of it, tube-style.