Music / Bella Donna (Album)

You can ride high atop your pony
I know you won't fall, 'cause the whole thing's phoney

Is love so fragile, and the heart so hollow
Shatter with words impossible to follow
You're saying I'm fragile. I try not to be
I search only for something I can't see

I have my own life
And I am stronger than you know
But I carry this feeling when you walked into my house
That you won't be walking out the door

Still I carry this feeling when you walked into my house
That you won't be walking out the door

—"Leather and Lace"

Bella Donna is the first solo album recorded by American rock artist Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac. It was released through Modern Records on July 27, 1981.

While recording Tusk, Stevie began writing songs for herself. Once promotion for that album was done in September 1980, she began to produce the album with Jimmy Iovine and Tom Petty.

While most of the songs were written by Stevie, one of the songs was written by Petty (as a duo with him, and backed by his band, The Heartbreakers). She would also score a duet with Don Henley, who himself had just gone solo after the breakup of the Eagles.

Stevie definitely succeeded at parlaying her Mac acclaim into solo success. The album was well-received, and wildly successful commercially, going quadruple-Platinum in the United States. The album was supported by four singles: "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" (her duet with Petty), "Leather and Lace" (her duet with Henley), "Edge of Seventeen", and "After the Glitter Fades". All were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Heart" peaking highest at #3.

She would perform a few solo concerts in the weeks after Thanksgiving 1981. The final night was recorded and aired on HBO, and later released as a concert video.

A remastered version of the album was released through Rhino Records in 2016, with a second disc containing alternate versions and early takes of various songs.

Tracklist

Side one

1. "Bella Donna" (5:21)
2. "Kind of Woman" (3:12)
3. "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (4:04)
4. "Think About It" (3:35)
5. "After the Glitter Fades" (3:31)

Side two

1. "Edge of Seventeen" (5:28)
2. "How Still My Love" (3:54)
3. "Leather and Lace" (3:44)
4. "Outside the Rain" (4:19)
5. "The Highwayman" (4:49)

"Just like the white winged dove sings a song, sounds like she's troping"

• The Highwayman: "Bella Donna" is a retelling of the famous poem, and also a Shout-Out (according to Stevie) to the male rockers she considers the most romantic, such as Eagles.
• Mondegreen Gag: "Edge of Seventeen" is based on a discussion with Tom Petty's wife about how she had met him when she was 17. She was amused by hearing her accent make it sound like she was saying "edge of 17" instead of "age of 17", and decided to use that as a song title.
  • Ironically, the first line of the song, "Just like the white-winged dove", is frequently misheard as "Just like the world we know".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Zig-Zagged regarding "Leather and Lace". While they had been lovers in the past, the relationship between Nicks and Henley had already run its course, though its aftermath was far less acrimonious than the aftermath of her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham.
• Special Guest:
  • "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" involved a collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
  • She duetted with Don Henley for "Leather and Lace".

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