The 10-song, 42-minute album – Bella Donna – was released in the summer of 1981. It was the Fleetwood Mac singer’s first release as a solo performer and, to date, is her most successful album. The album has sold over four million copies in the US alone and spent nearly three years on the Billboard 200 from July 1981 to June 1984.
For her debut solo effort, she teamed up with producer, Jimmy lovine… in more ways than one. In the re-issued album’s liner notes, she says “Within half an hour, I knew: there was something happening between us. I knew that this was going to be a relationship, and this went way beyond any record we were going to make.”
Don Henley, the E-Street Band’s Roy Bittan, Tom Petty and his Heartbreaker band mates, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench were all drafted in to the project.
The album spawned four singles, including a duet with Tom Petty (Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around) and the stand out track that would also become her signature song, Edge of Seventeen.
Bella Donna reached number one on the US Billboard 200 and number eleven in the UK Album Chart. The album was also included in the “Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums.”
The name of the cockatoo on the front cover Maxwellington. The bird belonged to her brother, Christopher, and also appeared with her on the Rolling Stones magazine cover when she was crowned “The Reigning Queen of Rock & Roll.”