“Seven Wonders” by Fleetwood Mac

by Sabrina Chitty · October 26, 2022

The title of this song, as you likely already know, is a reference to a number of monuments which collectively are known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Only one of them still exists, that being the Great Pyramid of Giza.

But the reason they are referred to as so is because said monuments are considered to be the most-impressive constructs of millennia ago. And even though these lyrics aren’t the easiest to comprehensively make sense of, it has been concluded that what the vocalist is putting forth is an idea like her past relationship with the addressee having been even more ‘beautiful’ than the Seven Wonders themselves.

Said addressee, all lyrics considered, would presumably be a romantic interest, though such is never specified. As the story goes, as originally composed this piece was rather named “Aaron”, after a deceased friend of one of the co-writers. (Owing to this, the name Aaron also pops up in the post-chorus.) And what that fact would imply is that “Seven Wonders” was actually intended to be a song of bereavement.

But it isn’t likely that listeners will interpret this piece so, primarily due to the nature of the bridge.

Therein, the singer expresses a sentiment akin to ‘hoping and praying’ that her relationship with the addressee “might work out someday”. Such an expression would imply that the two of them are estranged rather than one party being deceased.

Final Thoughts

But again, this isn’t the easiest song to understand in whole. And it would seem that part of that reality is attributable to the fact that the version of Seven Wonders which we have come to know and love was not wholly based on the actual words to the song as put together by the original author.

So maybe as first written the nature of the relationship between the vocalist and addressee, as well as the state of the latter, were made more specific. But as it actually turned out, what the lyrics basically read like is as if the person being sung to had a really profound presence in the vocalist’s life – so profound in fact that she doesn’t expect it to ever be replicated, unless the two of them reunite.

Lyrics of Fleetwood Mac's "Seven Wonders"

Facts about “Seven Wonders”

This track is from “Tango in the Night”, the Fleetwood Mac album that came out on 13 April 1987, which stands as their last studio album to date to have gone multi-platinum.

Relatedly, it is also the most recent of their projects to feature a number of notable hits. And amongst those hits is “Seven Wonders”. This hit charted in 10 countries. It’s most notable chart performance was peaking at number 2 on the US Mainstream Rock ranking.

“Seven Wonders” did not fare nearly as well on the UK Singles Chart. However, it did receive its only certification thus far across the pond, where the track went silver in 2020.

This tune must also be a fan favorite. There is actually a Fleetwood Mac tribute band known as “The Seven Wonders”.

Seven Wonders was released through Warner Bros., who Fleetwood Mac has been affiliated with (originally through one of its partners, Reprise Records) since the late-1960s. That is to say that either Warner Bros. or Reprise are responsible for 16 of the 18 studio albums in the band’s discography (as in all but the first two).

This song was written primarily by Sandy Stewart, a behind-the-scenes’ musician who is most known for her affiliation with Stevie Nicks. Sandy also acts as the lead vocalist on “Seven Wonders”.

Nicks is also given songwriting credit on this song. This is due to an unintentional and apparently a few impromptu modifications she made to the lyrics.

Accolades

In Canada, “Seven Wonders” ranked #8 in Canada. On US Billboard Mainstream Rock, it peaked at #2. It was #19 on US Billboard Hot 100 and #56 on UK Singles.