The deluxe editions of Stevie Nicks’ first two solo albums Bella Donna (1981) and The Wild Heart have been released. Both albums are available as CD deluxe editions with remastered sound, bonus tracks, new liner notes, and rare photos. The remastered vinyl edition of each album is also available.
Click here to see a list of purchase options.
For fans craving something fresh on the concert stage, Stevie Nicks’ new 24 Karat Gold Tour is truly golden.
She rehearsed 30 songs with her band to come up with the 20 that made the cut for the tour, which comes to Sunrise’s BB&T Center on Nov. 4 with opening act The Pretenders. Her goal was to include tunes she has never (or rarely) done live in a career that dates to the 1973 Buckingham Nicks album with then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham.
Rarities like “Bella Donna” and “Wild Heart,” the title tracks of her first two solo albums that are also being reissued in expanded versions Friday, are in the set. So is “Crying in the Night” from Buckingham Nicks that predates the couple joining Fleetwood Mac.
Fans will also appreciate the live debuts for a couple of tracks from her most recent solo album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault — “The sex, drugs, rock and roll glory songs between 1969 and 1987,” Nicks said of demos she polished and recorded anew in Nashville in 2014.
“I can never write those songs again. Those were songs I am very proud of. I pulled them off Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac records. The reasons were I didn’t like the production or I didn’t like the way they were recorded. I considered those to be my best songs so what I am going to do is go out with those songs and songs off In Your Dreams [her 2011 solo album] I didn’t do live, and it will be really fun.”
Such familiar hits as “Stand Back,” “Edge of Seventeen” and “Rhiannon” still figure in the set. The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde steps in to sing Tom Petty’s part on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” The show even opens with a rocking outtake from 1981’s “Bella Donna” — “Gold and Braid” — which Nicks hasn’t performed live since 2000.
After more than a year on the road with Fleetwood Mac on a worldwide reunion tour that grossed almost $200 million in the U.S., Nicks has been promising a radical departure from the same old for this tour and a late 2017 return with the Mac.
“Maybe when Fleetwood Mac does our last tour, maybe if I have anything to say about it, we’ll definitely go through the catalog and do a very different set. People have heard the set we’ve had to do all these years. Now they deserve to hear all the great stuff through all of these records,” she said. “I will put my foot down. I’m not going back on the road to do the same things we did on those 220 shows.”
The September release of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 album, Mirage, as an expanded boxed set and the Bella Donna and Wild Heart reissues have put Nicks in a reflective mood. (The group’s 1987 album, Tango in the Night is also forthcoming in deluxe fashion.)
The outtakes discs from Mirage and Bella Donna include versions of “If You Were My Love,” a song re-recorded for “24 Karat Gold” that she’s premiering live on the tour.
Meantime, the other members of Fleetwood Mac have recorded new songs and want to release a studio album, but Nicks is reluctant to participate. Listening to such classic tracks as “Gypsy” from the Mirage sessions hasn’t quite convinced her to go back into the studio with the others.
“When you listen to that song you wish Fleetwood Mac could make those kinds of records now, but it’s just not possible,” Nicks said. “It was such a different world then, and everything was done so differently and everyone was more on the same page. As the years went by, not really everybody, but mostly Lindsey and I, just went such different ways. It’s really hard to come back together.”
Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders perform at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at BB&T Center, 1 Panther Pkwy., Sunrise. Tickets: $45.25-$320. Ticketmaster.
Howard Cohen / Miami Herald / Thursday, October 27, 2016
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A RELEASE of two deluxe albums next month will see a whole lot more Stevie Nicks blasting from radios, stereos and iPods across the country.
On November 4, Warner Music Australia will release Bella Donna: Deluxe Edition and, two albums of classic songstress Stevie Nicks.
Bella Donna was the debut album of the now legendary performer, released originally in 1981.
The Wild Heart was Stevie’s following album, released in 1983.
Both albums achieved platinum status, with Bella Donna in fact being certified quadriple-platinum.
The album spawned four substantial hit singles during 1981 and 1982: the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-penned duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” the Don Henley duet “Leather and Lace,” the iconic “Edge of Seventeen,” and country-tinged “After the Glitter Fades.”
Bella Donna: Deluxe Edition and The Wild Heart: Deluxe Edition will be released by Warner Music Australia on November 4.
The Northern Star (Lismore, N.S.W.) / 20 October 2016 / © Australian Provincial Newspapers 2016
On November 4th, Stevie Nicks‘ first two solo albums — Bella Donna and The Wild Heart — will be reissued via Rhino. Each deluxe release will feature not only the original LP but rarities and bonus tracks, like the previously unreleased demo of her solo debut’s title track, streaming below.
Stripped of its backing vocals as well as the raucous live band and synthesizers featured on the original album version, Nicks’ demo is a tender, intimate take on the song. She sings softly above just the piano track, nearly whispering “Bella donna, my soul” and barely reaching the full-throated belt she unleashes on the 1981 recording.
Later this month and just before releasing the reissues, Nicks will embark on a solo tour with opening act the Pretenders. Nicks’ tour is in support of her 2014 album 24K Gold, a collection of songs she had cut from her prior solo releases for various reasons. “These are the glory songs,” she told Rolling Stone of her reason to follow a multi-year world tour with Fleetwood Mac with the solo dates. “These are the sex, rock & roll and drugs songs that I’m actually not really writing right now, and these are the songs I could never write again.”
Brittany Spanos / Rolling Stone / Thursday, October 13, 2016
LOS ANGELES – Stevie Nicks, the legendary singer songwriter whose highly acclaimed 30 year solo career includes seven studio albums, iconic hits, and record sales in the millions, will release deluxe editions with newly remastered audio and never before released live and recorded music from her first two solo albums Bella Donna and The Wild Heart. The end of October dual releases will come out in conjunction with the start of Nicks’ 24 Karat Gold Tour with Pretenders which begins in Phoenix on October 25. Complete tour schedule follows this release.
BELLA DONNA: DELUXE EDITION is a three-CD set for $29.98 and THE WILD HEART: DELUXE EDITION is a two-CD set for $19.98. Both will be available on November 4. On the same day, newly remastered versions of the original albums will also be available on LP ($21.98) and CD ($11.98). The music will be available digitally and through streaming services as well. A complete list of cuts on both deluxe editions follows this release.
“I’ve had so much fun reliving the making of Bella Donna and The Wild Heart while working on the liner notes and listening to all of the alternate versions and demo takes,” says Nicks. “The liner notes are so much more than liner notes. They are like a little novel. I tried to make whoever reads this feel like they were there. I think…I succeeded….”
Nicks joined producer Jimmy Iovine to begin recording songs for her solo debut, Bella Donna following the recording of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk and subsequent tour. The 1981 album was quickly certified platinum. Today, the album is 4x platinum thanks to Nicks classics like “Edge Of Seventeen,” “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and “Leather And Lace” (with Don Henley).
BELLA DONNA: DELUXE EDITION uncovers unreleased versions of “Edge Of Seventeen” and “Leather And Lace,” as well as rarities like “Blue Lamp” from the Heavy Metal Soundtrack and “Sleeping Angel” from the Fast Times At Ridgemont High Soundtrack. This deluxe edition also includes a concert from 1981 that features performances of songs from Bella Donna along with several Fleetwood Mac favorites.
Nicks returned in 1983 with her follow-up, The Wild Heart, which peaked at #5 on the album chart and has been certified double platinum. The album produced hits like “Stand Back,” “Nightbird” and “I Will Run To You,” which features Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. THE WILD HEART: DELUXE EDITION builds on the original album with unreleased versions of “All The Beautiful Worlds” a session version of “Wild Heart” and “Garbo,” the B-side to “Stand Back.”
BELLA DONNA: DELUXE EDITIONTrack Listing
Disc One: Original Album
Disc Two: Bonus Tracks
Disc Three: Live 1981
THE WILD HEART: DELUXE EDITIONTrack Listing
Disc One: Original Album
Disc Two: Bonus Tracks
Source: Official press release
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For Track No. 2, Stevie Nicks delved deep into her back catalog for “Kind of Woman,” a composition that dated back to the mid-1970s. In the song, Nicks confronted the infidelity in her romantic partner, pointedly addressing the temptation as the “kind of woman that’ll haunt you.” Although the completed 1981 track took on a less somber tone than the original demo, the weight of Nicks’ moral convictions — affirmed with a series of compelling vocal runs — remained undiminished.
Courtesy of Street Angel
On July 27, Stevie Nicks’ debut solo recording Bella Donna turned 35. As we celebrate this historic recording, Stevie Nicks Info looks back on the tracks that comprised Nicks’ most important album, a personal statement of artistic expression and independence. First stop: “Bella Donna.”
While Nicks’ primary goal was to record a backlog of quality material, Bella Donna quickly transcended all expectations, setting the stage for a monster solo career. High Times described the songs of Bella Donna as Nicks’ “special way of combining vulnerability with strength,” a quality that Nicks affirmed in the standout title track.
“That’s what ‘Bella Donna’ is about…’come in out of the darkness,’” Nicks explained in 1981. “I had to prove to myself that I could exist on my own” (High Times).
The self-empowering title track kicked off Side A of the five-million bestseller and literally set the stage for even bigger showstoppers.
Here is the live version of “Bella Donna,” recorded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, December 1981.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikaLrUv014U
Video courtesy of jonjon1303
Long before she became a star as a solo performer; before she and her musical partner (then lover) Lindsey Buckingham helped to transform the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac into one of the top-selling groups of all time; even before her professional recording debut in 1973 on the album Buckingham Nicks, Stephanie Lynn Nicks was living a real-life version of the Glass Menagerie.
Listen to the full interview now
[jwplayer mediaid=”374388″]Stevie Nicks: “I remember exactly what it was like to be 20. I mean, I was a cleaning lady, I was a waitress. I had problems… I mean, Lindsey and me together trying to figure out how we’re going to make it in the music business. And this is the only thing that either of us wanted to do. And what if we didn’t we make it ? I had to go to school. And he didn’t so… that, ya know, he had all this time. I didn’t have much time. I mean I was I was an emotional wreck at 20. Oh, yeah. I was an emotional wreck at 18 because that’s when I started singing in a band with Lindsey and we played three and ½ solid years up and down the San Francisco peninsula and opened for all the big huge bands in that special moment in time that was Haight-Ashbury and San Francisco. Where everybody came. And so I got to stand and watch from the side of the stage. Everybody. You name ‘em, we opened the show for ‘em. So I got like first hand experience, it’s the only reason I was able to walk into Fleetwood Mac without having a nervous breakdown. And walk out center front stage to the center mic and not just, ya know, collapse and faint, because I had already played in front of 75,000 people. Standing in the middle of the stage as lead singer.
It was a big adjustment and a lot to take. I was very young. Well, I wasn’t very young, I was 27, but I felt very young and it was like it was overnight, overnight, hugely successful. And it was hard for my little brain to accept that kind of fame that fast. And to go from being that poor and having all these little jobs that I had because Lindsey didn’t know how to do anything else except play music, and I could do anything. And did, to keep us going so that we could do it. Because at that time I had realized that we were going to make it if it killed me. And ya know working solidly to getting the Buckingham-Nicks deal and doing that record and having that record dropped and being just crushed. Because it’s one thing to be working towards it, and another to go into a big studio with a big producer and do a big record with all the 24 track board and everything and having the taste of the big time. And then be just be dropped like a hot potato, and go back to wondering if I should go back to school or if I should just work and let Lindsey pursue the music career. And I should just step out.Because by that time I was to the point where… ya know I’m very loyal and I certainly was Lindsey’s biggest fan and I thought he was the greatest guitar player in the world and had the most beautiful voice. He was one of those people that… I walked into a room once and he sat there and played a song and it was “Rooms on Fire.” He’s one of those. He was one of those men. And… whatever I had to do to keep him going was ok because it was more important for Lindsey than it was that I make it. Because I knew I could do a hundred other things and nobody could ever take my music away from me. I could still write songs and play. And, I could take my music in anything I did. I could go back to school. I only had a year to go to finish to get a masters. I could go back to school for three years and get a PhD. I would be fine. I knew that. I worried about him. I didn’t know what he would do. And because I was so in love with him there wasn’t any question in my mind that I would I stick in there until if we didn’t both make it, at least I got him up there. And when you love somebody and you see the pain in their face, when they even consider the fact that you might not make it… it’s like, “Don’t even think that we’re not going to make it. We are.” And in my heart I’m saying to myself, “If I have to comb this town, I will find somebody to listen to us that will understand how good we are, or that God willing, at least know how good he is.”
RB: What about expectations of you without the safety net of a band?
“I learned a long time ago never to expect. Because I think that was something that was instilled in me when I was really small. Don’t expect anything. Not that you can’t be confident about it. But just don’t expect the greatest things and then you won’t be disappointed. And then if great things do happen, you’ll be much more excited and happy about it. Then if you just said,” I know it’s hit record”, and then what if it isn’t? Then you’re devastated. And I don’t particular love being devastated, so I just thought a long time ago that I would take in my stride whatever happened, especially with my solo records. Being that they were solo records that means that yes, of course they’re more personal. Of course I’m giving away a whole lot more of myself, as my mother says to me, “too honest for the world sometimes”. So I never know exactly how people are going to take them. But every time I do a solo record I get more… convinced that the more honest I am with everybody, with what happens in my life and what has happened and what has gone on, and how I’ve managed to get to this point and still have my sanity, … the better. And the more people understand it, that this is real and these aren’t made up songs… and that I’m really trying to do a whole lot more than sing songs to people. That I’m trying to give out a little experience to people, I think. Maybe run by them, in a fantasy sort of way, experiences that I’ve been through that may save them a little bit of time. A little bit of hard time. Just help a little bit. I have to really feel that the song itself is important because I feel long after the singer is gone, and the songwriter is gone, that the song will remain.”
Editor’s Note: This appears to be an archived interview, rebroadcast for this radio special.
In the Studio with Redbeard / August 2016
Stevie Nicks‘ debut solo album and crowning commercial achievement Bella Donna turns 35 today.
Packed with radio-friendly tracks, Bella Donna spawned four Top 40 singles: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) (#3), “Leather and Lace” (with Don Henley) (#6), “Edge of Seventeen” (#11), and “After the Glitter Fades” (#32) To date, Bella Donna has sold than 5 million copies in the United States and Canada and 10 million copies worldwide. In 1982, Nicks earned two Grammy nominations for Best Rock Vocal Female for “Edge of Seventeen”; and Best Rock Vocal Group for “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”
Nicks supported the release of Bella Donna with a short 10-date national tour, dubbed “The White Winged Dove Tour.” The tour culminated with a series of concerts at the iconic Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, parts of which were later broadcast on HBO and NBC Radio. Nicks created one of the strongest set lists of her touring career, performing an unprecedented 8 tracks from a single album (Bella Donna); Fleetwood Mac classics “Dreams,” “Sara,” “Rhiannon,” and “Gold Dust Woman”; high-level deep cuts “Blue Lamp” and “Gold and Braid”; and even a Tom Petty cover, “I Need to Know.”
Nicks began her mission to launch a solo career in the late 1970s, planning the ambitious career move with record executives Paul Fishkin, Danny Goldberg, and Doug Morris. “I had all these tunes stored up,” Nicks explained. “I really needed to know that I could do something on my own” (People, 1982).
Along the way, the Nicks A-team recruited Tom-Petty-producer Jimmy Iovine, who enlisted Petty and the rest of his band The Heartbreakers to play on Nicks’ record. Nicks rounded our her band with backup singers Sharon Celani and Lori Nicks, who remain dear friends and loyal bandmates to this day.
“I was particularly nervous about making this album,” Nicks revealed, “because I knew I wouldn’t have [the four other members of Fleetwood Mac] to blame if it didn’t do well. Fortunately, I had great people to work with who encouraged me constantly” (BAM, 1981).
Thirty-five years later, Bella Donna stands as Stevie Nicks’ most important recording, with timeless songs that continue to inspire and move generations of listeners. Fans would heartily agree “the feeling remains even after the glitter fades.”
https://stevienicks.info/2013/02/vintage-monday-gold-and-braid/
https://stevienicks.info/2013/05/vintage-video-edge-of-seventeen/
During the week of August 8, In the Studio with Redbeard will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Stevie Nicks’ debut solo album Bella Donna. The nationally syndicated radio show will air tracks from the 5X platinum album and interviews from Nicks talking about the recording sessions and the beginning of her solo career.
Bella Donna marks its 35th anniversary on Tuesday, July 27.
For a list of radio stations that air the show, click here.