Bella Donna (album)

Stevie Nicks began work on Bella Donna in 1979, in between sessions for Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album, released in October that year. Nicks recorded various demo versions of songs in early and mid-1980 but these recordings were not used on the album. Following the end of the Tusk tour on September 1, 1980, work with a full band commenced under producer Jimmy Iovine. Nicks recalled that the album was recorded piecemeal since several of the session musicians, including Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel, were operating under a tight schedule. "We didn't put on 50,000 guitars because we didn't have Waddy around long enough to do 50,000 guitar overdubs. We were lucky to get him to do one guitar part." The Bella Donna recording sessions also presented Nicks with an opportunity to work on arrangements without Lindsey Buckingham, who extensively assisted with arrangements on her Fleetwood Mac material. For Bella Donna, Nicks instead allowed the session musicians to develop their own ideas for the instrumentation based on the demos she created. Recording sessions continued until the spring of 1981 when the final songs for the album were completed: "Edge of Seventeen" and "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", a duet with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The 10-song, 42-minute album Bella Donna was released in the summer of 1981. Nicks wrote "Think About It" for her friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie during the Rumours recording sessions, but the song was never completed until Bella Donna. "After the Glitter Fades" was Nicks' oldest song on the record, having been written in 1972, while "Think About It", Don Henley duet "Leather and Lace", and "The Highwayman" were written in 1975. Stan Lynch, whose playing on "Outside the Rain" made the album, also remembered rehearsing "Gypsy", which would later be recorded by Fleetwood Mac for their 1982 album Mirage. According to Nicks, 16 songs were recorded during the Bella Donna sessions, of which 10 were selected for the album. ==Release==

Music Week announced that WEA International would handle the distribution of Bella Donna outside the United States and Canada, with the slated release date being July 31, 1981. The album debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 for the week dated August 15, 1981. It was the highest debut on the Billboard 200 since Stevie Wonder Hotter Than July entered the chart at number four in November 1980. In late August, the album ascended to number two, the same week that Mick Fleetwood The Visitor album reached its peak of number 43. In reaching number two, Bella Donna outperformed the number four chart peak of Fleetwood Mac 1979 Tusk album. One month later, the album received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was certified quadruple-platinum in 1990 for four million copies shipped in the United States. == Critical reception ==

Robin Katz of Smash Hits gave Bella Donna a six out of ten and "folk and country strains, woven between Nicks' famed harmonies and the texturized West Coast sound-mix." They ultimately felt that it heavily resembled a Fleetwood Mac album despite the contributions of Tom Petty and Roy Bittan. Henderson also wrote that Jimmy Iovine "wisely" avoided "over-producing" and kept the sound "organic". ==Track listing==

All tracks are written by Stevie Nicks, except where noted. Deluxe edition Released on 4 November 2016, this edition features remastered audio and consists of three discs, divided into: the original album; alternate versions, unreleased tracks, and "rarities"; and a 1981 concert. The information on disc two has been adapted from the Rhino website and the deluxe edition CD's liner notes. All tracks are written by Stevie Nicks, except where noted. ==Personnel==

Adapted from the album's liner notes. Musicians • Stevie Nicks – lead vocals, backing vocals • Sharon Celani; Lori Perry – backing vocals • Russ Kunkel – drums (1, 2, 4–8) • Waddy Wachtel – guitar (1, 2, 4–8) • Davey Johnstone – acoustic guitar (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10) • Bob Glaub – bass guitar (1, 2, 4–7) • Bobbye Hall – percussion (1, 2, 4–7) • Benmont Tench – organ (1–7, 9, 10), piano (9) • Roy Bittan – piano (2, 5–8) Additional musicians • Bill Elliott – piano (1) • David Adelstein – synthesizer (1) • Tom Petty – guitar (3, 9), co-lead vocals (3) • Michael Campbell – guitar (3, 9, 10) • Donald Dunn – bass guitar (3) • Stan Lynch – drums (3, 9) • Phil Jones – percussion (3, 9) • Billy Payne – piano (4) • Dan Dugmore – pedal steel guitar (5) • Don Henley – co-lead vocals (8), backing vocals (10), drums (10) • Tom Moncrieff – bass guitar (9) • Don Felder – guitar (10) • Richard Bowen – bass guitar (10) Production • Jimmy Iovine – producer • Jimmy Iovine; Tom Petty – producers (3, 9) • Shelly Yakus – engineer, mixing engineer • Don Smith – mixing engineer, additional engineering • Thom Panunzio – additional engineering • Dana Latham; Tori Swenson, Niko Bolas; James Ball – assistant engineers • Stephen Marcussen – mastering (at Precision Lacquer) • Gordon Perry – arranger (1) • Roy Bittan – arranger (7) • Benmont Tench – musical director • Janet Weber – production coordinator • Debbie Alsbury – production assistance, personal assistant • Cathie Rice – production assistance • Irving Azoff – management Artwork • Herbert W. Worthington III – art direction, photography, design, cover concept • Stevie Nicks – cover concept • Christopher Nicks – cover concept • Mike Manoogian – logo design • Michael Curtis – layout, design, back cover and inside lighting • Richard Hall – front cover lighting • Sabienne Poilievre – front cover hair design • Beverlee Vance; Richard Bremer; Danton Thompson – hair design • Margi Kent – clothes • Liza Gonzales – make-up • Kathryn Greenbalm – hands ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications and sales==

==Tour and HBO television special==

Nicks underwent a short national tour in support of the album, starting on November 28, 1981, at The Summit in Houston, United States and finishing on December 13 of the same year at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills after ten concerts. The final concert was recorded by HBO for a television special, and later released on VHS and LaserDisc video in many territories by CBS/Fox in 1982 as White Wing Dove – Stevie Nicks in Concert. The whole show was recorded, but only 9 tracks ("Gold Dust Woman", "Gold and Braid", "I Need to Know", an edited "Outside the Rain", "Dreams", "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", "Sara", "Edge of Seventeen" and "Rhiannon") were shown on the TV special and released to video. The entirety of the show has circulated as a bootleg. However, the live performance of "Leather and Lace" was used as a video promo for the single release (even though it was a solo version and did not feature Don Henley), and did surface on the 1986 VHS collection ''I Can't Wait'', which featured six of Nicks' promo-clips between 1981 and 1985. These six promos were released on DVD as a special feature to the Australian issue of Fleetwood Mac – Mirage Tour in 2007. On the 2016 Bella Donna Deluxe Edition, 14 tracks from the show - the ten aforementioned songs as well as "Angel", "After the Glitter Fades", "Bella Donna" and "How Still My Love" - were remastered and released (Disc 3), with "Outside the Rain" being restored to its full version. Previously, only two tracks ("Edge of Seventeen" and "Gold and Braid") were found on the boxset The Enchanted Works of Stevie Nicks (1998). "Blue Lamp" and "Think About It" were recorded and received audio broadcast on radio but were not televised, and as such have never been officially released. Nicks' retrospective Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007) included the full live 1981 clip of "Edge of Seventeen" on the DVD supplement, with optional commentary from Nicks. She admits that her tears at the end of the song were due to her thoughts of having to join Fleetwood Mac in France the following day to begin recording the album Mirage, one of the key reasons why the 1981 tour was so short. Tour set list • "Gold Dust Woman" • "Think About It" • "Outside the Rain" • "Dreams" • "Angel" • "After the Glitter Fades" • "Gold and Braid" • "I Need to Know" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover) • "Sara" • "Bella Donna" • "Blue Lamp" • "Leather and Lace" • "How Still My Love" • "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" • "Edge of Seventeen" ;Encore • "Rhiannon" Tour dates ==References==