Completely agree on the Iovine connection. Funny thing is that Fergie isn’t really enough of a singer to get promoted the way Stevie was — a lot of guest backing vocals (Kenny Loggins, John Stewart, etc.) prior to the big solo breakthrough. Gwen Stefani’s trajectory, however, is very similar (Moby, Eve) — wonder whether Iovine was as involved? Also similar is how Fergie is being positioned as a pop diva, rather than the allegedly R&B take of the Peas, while Stevie was pushed as rock, compared to the Mac’s strong pop flavor.

Once Buckingham got heavily involved in the production, it was largely his band, and since he was the only one who worked mostly sober and was willing to tie himself to the soundboard to get stuff done, he had a huge leg up on everyone else in terms of determining what the final product would be. But I think that Stevie’s interim hits between Mirage and Tango in the Night (meaning the 5-6 singles off of the Wild Heart and Rock a Little albums) at least kept that sound in the public consciousness (and MTV), so that Tango wasn’t as much of a comeback as it might have otherwise been.

While the Buckingham/McVie solo projects had some success, I don’t think that their solo records had as much of the Mac flavor to them as Nicks’ solo work did, so didn’t have the same effect.

The only reason Nicks doesn’t come up in the context of this column is her chart performance. Bella Donna was a chart-topping album, but none of its singles made No. 1 (the Petty track made the Top Five, the Henley track the Top 10); and by the time she went solo the Mac had already had its sole No. 1 single, “Dreams” (one of her songs, natch).

You’re also right about the power structure in Mac — after Tusk they were largely Lindsay Buckingham’s show, with or without the interpersonal dysfunction. So there was a limit to how much weight Nicks could throw around coming back to home base. I’d half-agree with you about what her solo cred did for the group: she came back powerful on Mirage, and “Gypsy” was hugely important to that album (a Nicks song through-and-through that could easily have appeared on The WIld Heart); but she was almost a nonentity on Tango, which is such a Buckingham album. Besides, by ‘87, her solo career was well established but pretty dull, and it was sort of a minor miracle Tango happened at all (longest hiatus between Mac albums; by then all three songwriters had scored hit singles/albums). Still, your larger point is totally solid.

That said, given that Fleetwood Mac was a dysfunctional soap opera before her solo career, her solo success didn’t give her any more power over the direction of the band or the participation of the other songwriters/vocalists. I don’t see Timberlake and Fatone giving each other the silent treatment…JC on the other hand….

For example, could Justin Timberlake return to N* Sync at this point? I don’t mean a take-pity-on-Chasez-and-Fatone reunion tour sometime in 2012; I mean return for real, right now, and record again, and score hits. Clearly not; any pretense of equality the group had before would be gone.

Fergie, OTOH, got huge with her Dutchess singles but not so huge that it’s implausible for her to come back to home base, Collins-and-Genesis-style. (And it didn’t hurt that the Obama video kept will’s profile high last year, preventing her from eclipsing him. I can’t claim to know how Taboo or Apl.de.Ap feel, though.)

I don’t really buy this. I think that Fergie has eclipsed the black eyed peas. I think “boom boom pow” is a fergie single – at the very least, people are treating it that way and buying/listening accordingly. It’s like will.i.am has traded his soul for some success, or something.

That Careless Whisper cover, on the other hand, makes me want to die and/or listen to the Gossip version instead.