The addition of Buckingham and Nicks gave the band a more pop rock sound, and their 1975 album Fleetwood Mac topped the Billboard 200 chart in the United States.

In 2018, Fleetwood Mac received the MusiCares Person of the Year award from the Recording Academy in recognition of their artistic achievement in the music industry and dedication to philanthropy.

Their next and more successful compilation album The Pious Bird of Good Omen was released in August and contained various singles, B-sides and tracks the band had recorded as back-up for Eddie Boyd.

For the B-side, Spencer fronted Fleetwood Mac as "Earl Vince and the Valiants" and recorded "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite", typifying the more raucous rock 'n' roll side of the band.

"[26] German author and filmmaker Rainer Langhans stated in his autobiography that he and his then-girlfriend, model Uschi Obermaier, met Green in Munich and invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune, where the drinks were spiked with acid.

[32] Kirwan's songs on the album moved the band in a melodic rock direction, while Spencer's contributions focused on re-creating the country-tinged "Sun Sound" of the late 1950s.

[35] In early 1971, the band released a non-album single, Danny Kirwan's "Dragonfly" b/w "The Purple Dancer" in the UK and certain European countries, but despite good notices in the press, it was not a success.

[37] In the summer of 1971, the band held auditions for a replacement guitarist at their large country home, "Benifold", which they had jointly bought with their manager Davis for £23,000 (equivalent to £449,400 in 2023[38]) prior to the Kiln House tour.

Mostly composed by Kirwan, Bare Trees featured the Welch-penned single "Sentimental Lady", which would be a much bigger hit for Welch five years later when he re-recorded it for his solo album French Kiss, backed by Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie.

[42] Following Kirwan's departure, the band recruited guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker, the latter formerly of Savoy Brown and Idle Race.

[51] He recruited members of the band Legs, which had recently issued one single under Davis's management,[52] to tour the US in early 1974[53] under the name "The New Fleetwood Mac"[30][54] and perform the rescheduled dates.

He realised that Fleetwood Mac was being neglected by Warner Bros and that they would need to change their base of operation from England to America, to which the rest of the band agreed.

By the time the tour ended (on 5 December 1974 at Cal State University), the Heroes album had reached a higher position on the American charts than any of the band's previous records.

[71] Whilst Fleetwood was checking out Sound City Studios in Los Angeles during the autumn of 1974, the house engineer, Keith Olsen, played him a track he had recorded, "Frozen Love", from the album Buckingham Nicks (1973).

[77] The pressure on Fleetwood Mac to release a successful follow-up album, combined with their new-found wealth, led to creative and personal tensions which were allegedly fuelled by high consumption of drugs and alcohol.

Buckingham's "Second Hand News", Nicks' "Gold Dust Woman", and "The Chain" (the only song written by all five band members) also received significant radio airplay.

"Sara" was cut to four-and-a-half minutes for both the single and the first CD release of the album in the 1980s, but the full version has since been restored on the 1988 Greatest Hits, the 1992 25 Years – The Chain box set, 2002's The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, and the 2004 remaster of Tusk.

Its hits included Christine McVie's "Hold Me" and "Love in Store" (co-written by Robbie Patton and Jim Recor, respectively), Nicks' "Gypsy", and Buckingham's "Oh Diane", which made the Top 10 in the UK.

During this period, Fleetwood had filed for bankruptcy, Nicks was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction problems, and John McVie had suffered an addiction-related seizure – all of which were attributed to the lifestyle of excess afforded to them by their worldwide success.

It was successful enough to warrant the release of a concert video, also titled Tango in the Night, which was filmed at San Francisco's Cow Palace arena in December 1987.

With this album, the band veered away from the stylised sound that Buckingham had evolved during his tenure (which was also evident in his solo work) and developed a more adult contemporary style with producer Greg Ladanyi.

It received mixed reviews and was seen by some music critics as a low point for the band in the absence of Buckingham (who had actually made a guest appearance playing on the title track).

A notable inclusion in the box set was "Silver Springs", a Nicks composition that was recorded during the Rumours sessions but was omitted from the album and used as the B-side of "Go Your Own Way".

Solo singer-songwriter/guitarist and original Traffic member Dave Mason, who had worked with Bekka's parents Delaney & Bonnie twenty-five years earlier, was also added.

The other five members (Fleetwood, J. McVie, Burnette, Bramlett and Mason) toured in 1994, opening for Crosby, Stills & Nash, and in 1995 as part of a package with REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar.

With additional musicians Neale Heywood on guitar, Brett Tuggle on keyboards, Lenny Castro on percussion and Sharon Celani (who had toured with the band in the late 1980s) and Mindy Stein on backing vocals, this would be the final appearance of the classic line-up including Christine McVie for 16 years.

While these two apparently remained unconvinced,[99] in April 2006 bassist John McVie, during a question-and-answer session on the Penguin Fleetwood Mac fan website, said of the reunion idea: If we could get Peter and Jeremy to do it, I'd probably, maybe, do it.

On 1 November 2009 a one-hour documentary, Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop, was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, featuring recent interviews with all four current band members.

On 19 December 2009, Fleetwood Mac played the second-to-last show of their Unleashed tour to a sell-out crowd in New Zealand, at what was intended to be a one-off event at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth.

[145] On 8 June 2018, former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan died at the age of 68 in a hostel for homeless alcoholics in London, after contracting pneumonia earlier in the year.