Albatross (instrumental)

Green specifically cited Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk" and "The Last Meal" from Eric Clapton time with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers as inspirations for "Albatross". He 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". Martin Celmins mentioned in Green's biography that an early inspiration for "Albatross" was "a group of notes from an Eric Clapton solo, played slower." Green said 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". Green had been working on the piece for some time before the addition to the band of 18-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan. 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". 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. The bass guitar was also double tracked. 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". 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." ==Commercial performance==

Vernon recalled that the song first gained traction when it was played during the end credits of a Top of the Pops segment. At its commercial peak, the song was selling 60,000 copies per week. "Albatross" was re-released in the United Kingdom in April 1973 as part of a CBS Records series entitled "Hall of Fame Hits", and enjoyed a second UK chart run, peaking at number 2. ==Critical reception==

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. 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." Several publications have included "Albatross" on their lists ranking the best Fleetwood Mac songs. The Guardian and Paste ranked the song number 12 and number 28 respectively on their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian thought that the song's "flawlessly becalmed atmosphere" "transcended its era" and Matt Mitchell of Paste said that the song was not the "flashiest early Mac song by far, but it's one of the sweetest to revisit." Rolling Stone also ranked the song number 19 on their list of the band's 50 greatest songs. ==B-sides==

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". Green felt that his approach to the song was unsatisfactory and opted not to play on the studio recording. Similar to "Albatross", Spencer also sat out of the recording sessions for "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues". As such, Kirwan played all of the guitars himself on "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues". 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. Fleetwood Mac's cover of "Need Your Love So Bad" was selected as the B-side for the 1973 re-release of "Albatross". ==Personnel==

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

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. 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. In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Albatross" at number 37 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks". ==References==