The Generic, Non Specific Stevie Nicks Podcast

Rock A Little was more fun to record than we expected. The album was released on November 18, 1985 and went platinum within a month of release.

The recording history of the album was so interesting. Stevie spent over a million dollars recording it in various studios over the course of a year. There’s an urban myth that an original album was called ‘Mirror, Mirror,’ and it was scrapped in favor of ‘Rock A Little.’ This is false, but lots of additional songs were recorded and did not make it onto the album (including the song, ‘Mirror, Mirror’).

In the episode, Randy mentions a documentary about The Imperial Hotel in Japan, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The ‘Rock A Little,’ track of the same name plays at the end of the documentary

Stevie’s gift of the song ‘You Like Me,’ to The Williams Brothers was in exchange for ‘Some Became Strangers,’ which appeared on their album. You can hear the Williams Brothers’ ‘You Like Me,’ on YouTube.

Our interview with Dwight was revelatory, and if you haven’t seen the Red Rocks concert, we highly encourage you!!!

Talk to Me was a favorite of both of us, and the backstory is fascinating. As recounted in the episode, Stevie very nearly had the song ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More,’ for the album, and she performed It with Tom Petty on his 2006 Tour. Other songs considered included ‘These Dreams,’ which went to Heart.

We WERE going to do a side by side comparison of the original video but:

Instead, here’s the first version of the song, released prior to the album.

We end the episode with ‘Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You,’ which is one of Stevie’s most important songs. Every performance is special, but the Storytellers version is one of Randy’s favorites.

Where’s Raven?

It’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Raven is MISSING! After disappearing at the end of the ‘Terror of Trigon,’ storyline (one of the BEST Teen Titan stories), Raven has vanished. We’re sure Fleetwood Mac felt the same about Stevie during the recording of ‘Tango in the Night.’

Dig Deeper

Randy has compiled his alternate ‘Rock A Little,’ playlist on YouTube. Yes, it includes at least ONE Wild Heart outtake (‘All The Beautiful Worlds’) and one Fleetwood Mac outtake (‘Juliet’), but it flows together really well. As mentioned in the episode, the version of ‘The Nightmare,’ is unavailable on YouTube, so he just omitted it.

Further Reading

We can’t recommend Simon Morrison’s book ‘Mirror in the Sky: The Life and Music of Stevie Nicks,’ enough. Well researched and thought out, Morrison not only gives a glimpse into the recording and touring of Stevie’s music, but gives her rightful credit for her songwriting talents.