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The eighth track of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album "Rumours", and the fourth and final single from the album. Written and sung by vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie, “You Make Loving Fun” is a love song with a more optimistic tone than most songs on the album, as it depicts McVie moving on from past troubles into a life with a new lover.
The song was inspired by McVie’s relationship with Curry Grant following the split with her husband, bassist John McVie.
“You Make Loving Fun” became the 4th top-ten hit for the band, peaking at #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also became a concert staple for the entirety of McVie’s time with the band, only stopping between 1997-2014 when she left the band for a while.
The song was later released on the 2015 rhythm game Rock Band 4 as a playable track on the disc.
Caillat told the Recording Academy:
"There’s some tom fills on ‘You Make Loving Fun’ in the choruses that Lindsey wanted to have kind of a spastic, accentuated beat. Mick felt that he didn’t really want to try it so Lindsey played the toms. Lindsey was the accent king. He could accent with guitars, he could accent with toms, he could accent with Naugahyde chairs."
He also told Music Radar:
"My favorite-sounding song on the record. I just love those four clicks on the hi-hat and bam! We’re right into it, with everybody playing. I still think it sounds great. Originally, it was done on Christine’s Yamaha electric piano. We wanted it to sound nastier and dirtier, though, because everybody was playing very hard. I made a remark about a Clavinet, and one of the engineers said there was one in Sly’s room. We ran out and grabbed it.
To accentuate the ‘Clav-iness,’ we put it through a wah-wah pedal. Christine couldn’t play her keyboard part and work the wah at the same time, so Mick got down on his hands and knees and worked the pedal while Christine played. Being a drummer, he knew just what kind of rhythm it needed.
I remember when we were doing background vocals, Stevie and Lindsey were having an argument. Vicious name-calling – ‘you motherfucker’ this, ‘you fucking bastard’ that. Back and forth it went. The tape would start rolling and they’d sing, ‘Yooooooou make loving fun,’ just beautiful, two little angels. The tape would stop and they’d be calling each other names again. They didn’t miss a beat."
Rolling Stone named it the #13 greatest Fleetwood Mac song, saying:
"In 1976, Christine McVie’s patience with husband John’s alcoholism reached its end, and she started dating the band’s lighting director Curry Grant. The exaltation of that new relationship can be heard on ‘You Make Loving Fun,’ a buoyantly funk-infused snapshot of a woman availing herself of rock-star sexual freedom. (To protect John’s feelings, Christine told him it was about her dog.) Rumours co-producer Ken Caillat was amazed during the session for ‘You Make Loving Fun,’ when he witnessed Buckingham and Nicks get into a vicious argument while recording backing vocals, then pause and nail their parts perfectly."
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