Albatross (instrumental)

Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk" (1959) reportedly inspired Peter Green for his 1968 instrumental "Albatross".^[10] Green took a liking to the Hawaiian-inspired guitar playing on the song and wanted to instill those stylistic choices into "Albatross" with a "blues feel.^[11] The composition also resembles Chuck Berry's 1957 instrumental "Deep Feeling", itself derivative of the 1939 recording "Floyd's Guitar Blues" by Andy Kirk and his 12 Clouds of Joy, featuring guitarist Floyd Smith.^[12]

In Green's biography [Celmins 1995], an early inspiration for "Albatross" was said to have been "a group of notes from an Eric Clapton solo, played slower." Green also mentioned that he developed the title for "Albatross" after reading the poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and took further inspiration from the midsection found on the Traffic song, "Hole in My Shoe", which features dialogue from a girl about "climb[ing] on the back of a giant albatross".^[11]

Green had been working on the piece for some time before the addition to the band of 18-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan.^[13] According to Green, he wrote parts of the song while on an aeroplane and said that he "composed in the way musicians do, by feeling it out over time".^[11] Slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer was not generally inclined to work with Green, who had felt unable to realise the overall effect that he wanted.^[13] With Kirwan's input, who assisted with some of the harmonies,^[11] Green completed the piece and it was recorded just two months after Kirwan joined, without Spencer present.^[13] Green later commented that "he wouldn't have done 'Albatross' without Danny."^[11]

Fleetwood Mac spent two days recording and mixing "Albatross", which was a considerable amount of time to spend on one song according to Mike Vernon, who served as the band's producer.^[14] The sessions took place at CBS's During the first day of the recording session, which occurred on 6 October 1968, Mick Fleetwood played his drum kit using timpani mallets, which were then panned to the left and right channels by Mike Ross, who engineered the session. The initial tracking also consisted of John McVie on bass guitar along with Kirwan and Green on guitar. Cymbals and additional guitars were overdubbed the same day after the basic track was established.^[15] The bass guitar was also double tracked.^[11] Kirwan commented that the band did not approach "Albatross" with the intention of releasing it as a single. He explained that their approach was to record a series of songs and later determine "if there was a single among them", which is what occurred with "Albatross".^[16]

This composition is one of only a few tracks by the original line-up of Fleetwood Mac that is included on their later "greatest hits" and "best of" compilations. "Albatross" is the only Fleetwood Mac composition to inspire at least two Beatles songs, "Sun King" from 1969's Abbey Road and the single "Don't Let Me Down".^[10][17] George Harrison commented in a 1987 interview that the Beatles used "Albatross" as a starting point to construct a new song. "At the time, 'Albatross' (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac... but that was the point of origin."^[18]

Vernon recalled that the song first gained traction when it was played during the end credits of a Top of the Pops segment.^[14] CBS had initially attempted to secure the song soon after its release on Top of the Pops, but the program was hesitant over the belief that it lack commercial viability. The program later found an open 45 second slot during the end credits and opted to fill it with an audio clip of "Albatross". The next day, CBS received an influx of orders for the single.^[11] Fleetwood Mac was subsequently booked for an interview with Simon Dee, granting the band further exposure, and the song's appearance in a documentary further bolstered the song's sales numbers.^[11][14] The song was a success in several countries and remains Fleetwood Mac's only number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart, spending one week at the top in January 1969.^[19] At its commercial peak, the song was selling 60,000 copies per week.^[14]

In a 1970 interview with Record Mirror, Fleetwood commented that the single "altered people's opinions of the band. Before we were more or less a straight blues band, but now people have had to get used to us playing what we feel like – and not necessarily the blues." He also said that the song's success encouraged them to place more value in releasing singles.^[20]

"Albatross" was re-released in the United Kingdom in April 1973 as part of a CBS Records series entitled "Hall of Fame Hits",^[21] and enjoyed a second UK chart run, peaking at number 2.^[6][19] Archived footage of the band was aired on Top of the Pops to accompany the audio clip of "Albatross", during which the host mistakenly announced that the band had since broken up.^[22]

Writing for New Musical Express, Derek Johnson thought that "Albatross" was a musical departure from the band's previous single, "Need Your Love So Bad". He described "Albatross" as a "slow and brilliantly descriptive instrumental" and a "technically exemplary guitar duet" that evoked the song "Sleep Walk". Johnson concluded the review by proclaiming that the song had little chart potential.^[23] Following the song's entry into the top ten, Tony Wilson of Melody Maker wrote that the "Albatross" was "a rather surprising hit, being an instrumental and not the familiar heavy blues feel of the Mac's music."^[24] The Guardian and Paste ranked the song number 12 and number 28 respectively on their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs. Paste said that the song was not "flashiest early Mac song by far, but it's one of the sweetest to revisit."^[25][26]

The 1968 B-side to "Albatross" was "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues", a non-album track written by Danny Kirwan. He took inspiration from a clarinet solo played by Jimmy Dorsey on a 1933 composition of the same name written by Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti. Kirwan then repurposed the clarinet solo for guitar and recorded the song on 6 October 1968 at CBS Studios in London, the same day as "Albatross".^[15][27] Green felt that his approach to the song was unsatisfactory and opted not to play on the studio recording.^[11] Similar to "Albatross", Spencer also sat out of the recording sessions for "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues".^[27] As such, Kirwan played all of the guitars himself on "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues".^[13] John Peel, a disc jockey for BBC Radio 1, opted to play "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" on his Top Gear radio programme instead of its A-side.^[11] Fleetwood Mac's cover of "Need Your Love So Bad" was selected as the B-side for the 1973 re-release of "Albatross".^[27]

• Peter Green – guitar
• Danny Kirwan – guitar
• John McVie – bass guitar
• Mick Fleetwood – drums

One of the earliest uses of the tune was on the soundtrack for the Rainer Werner Fassbinder sci-fi virtual reality film World on a Wire (1973). It was featured (along with "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues") in 1979's Rock 'n' Roll High School. Mick Fleetwood told Rolling Stone magazine that it was also used by the BBC on a wildlife program before it was a hit.^[44] The piece was also used as the background music to Marks & Spencer's 2005 advertising campaign. The song was used again by Marks & Spencer in 2019.^[45]

In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Albatross" at number 37 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks".^[46]