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You're listening to Sound Opinions and this week we'll be revealing our selections for our favorite albums of 2022.

I'm Jim DeRugas and I'm Greg Kott. We'll also hear some picks from our production staff, but first we pay tribute to the late great Christine McVee.

That is Fleetwood Max Everywhere, which is everywhere because it's on a TV commercial lately.

Everybody seems to be hearing that song. That was written by Christine McVee who died at age 79 on November 30th.

Didn't see that when coming, Jim. She died the way she lived, very low-key. She experienced some health problems over the summer apparently.

One of the great songwriters of the last few decades, I would say, very underrated, classically trained, became part of the British blues rock scene in London in the 60s.

Swing in London, and she stood out because she was one of the few females on that scene.

It was very male-dominated, but she stood out with her keyboard playing, her harmony singing, her vocals, had a hit with a band called Chicken Shack in 1969.

It was a very incredible, very strong cover of Added James as I'd rather go on.

You listen to that and you go, wow, great voice, right?

Got persuaded to join Fleetwood Max. She was a big fan of the Peter Green era band. She met her future husband there, John McVee.

She was Christine Perfect before she met John McVee.

What a great name. Yeah, exactly. Christine Perfect wrote some pretty perfect songs.

In this period, after Peter Green left, kind of the linchpin of the band in the 60s, and before the arrival of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in 1972 Americans.

Christine Perfect, now Christine McVee was one of the main songwriters in the band, really developed those songwriting chops, and those melodies just seemed to flow out of her naturally.

They probably should have had more hits than they did in that era, because the songs were undeniable, but they didn't really fit into American radio at the time.

But the songs experimented a little, and heroes are hard to find. Those became staples of FM radio.

When Buckingham was invited to join the band as a guitar player in 1974, they were a rotating cast of the guitars in that band.

He said, I'd like to join, but I want to bring my partner Stevie with me, and the guys in the band were like, we already got the female singer. We don't need another one.

We have a woman, and Christine McVee is like, no, no, no, we need her. Let's bring her in.

You know, something that Stevie never forgot. They were very closely bonded after that.

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