What Makes You Think You're the One

Album: Tusk (1979)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Many of Lindsey Buckingham's songs for Fleetwood Mac in the late '70s chronicle his relationship with his onetime lover and bandmate Stevie Nicks. It is widely believed that this scathing response to an ex who still believes he will be always be there for her is addressed to his Fleetwood Mac colleague.
  • Buckingham recorded Mick Fleetwood's drums through a boombox, which gives his beats a sensitive distortion that bolsters his no-nonsense vocals.

    "That was just me and Mick, and we were really looking to get some kind of crazy drum sound," Buckingham recalled to Uncut. "That was back in the day when everybody had boomboxes, and we had an old cassette player with these really crappy Mics. But you could record on it, and the system had built-in compressors, and we took the output. We put that right in front of the drums, and I think we put another one overhead, too, as opposed to mic'ing the whole thing as you usually do. And we ran that cassette player into the console and it just made this really explosive, trashy sound.

    "Mick was getting off on that drum sound so much," he added. "I was playing the piano and he was playing the drums, and we cut that song late one night, just the two of us."

Comments: 1

  • Jonathan from Milwaukee, WiSo Christine McVie doesn't play the piano on this?
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

Mick Jones of Foreigner

Mick Jones of ForeignerSongwriter Interviews

Foreigner's songwriter/guitarist tells the stories behind the songs "Juke Box Hero," "I Want To Know What Love Is," and many more.

Vince Clarke

Vince ClarkeSongwriter Interviews

An original member of Depeche Mode, Vince went on to form Erasure and Yaz.

Martin Page

Martin PageSongwriter Interviews

With Bernie Taupin, Martin co-wrote the #1 hits "We Built This City" and "These Dreams." After writing the Pretty Woman song for Go West, he had his own hit with "In the House of Stone and Light."

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)Songwriter Interviews

The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.