Writer: Stevie Nicks
Producer: Jimmy Iovine
Recorded: Early 1983 in Los Angeles
Released: May 1983
| Players: | Stevie Nicks — vocals David Williams — guitar Waddy Wachtel — guitar Steve Lukather — guitar Prince — synthesizer Sandy Stewart — synthesizer Marvin Caruso — drums Bobbye Hall — percussion David Bluefield — drum machine programming Russ Kunkel — drums Ian Wallace — percussion Sharon Celani — backing vocals Lori Perry Nicks — backing vocals |
| Album: | The Wild Heart (Modern Records, 1983) |
The first single from Stevie Nicks' second solo album, “Stand Back” reached Number Five on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Wild Heart was similarly successful, reaching Number Five on the Billboard 200 and Number 28 on the U.K album chart. It has sold more than two million copies.
According to Nicks, she wrote “Stand Back” on the day she got married to Kim Anderson, the widowed husband of her best friend Robin Anderson. “We were driving to Santa Barbara and a new song from Prince came on, so we pulled over somewhere and got the tape. It just gave me an incredible idea, so I spent many hours that night writing a song about some kind of a crazy argument, and it was to become one of the most important of my songs…because usually I make up my own characters, but the lady in 'Stand Back' was not my idea.”
Nicks informed Prince about his influence on the song, and he came into the studio to play some synthesizer on it. “He played incredible synthesizer on it…and then he just walked out of my life, and I didn't see him for a long time,” Nicks said. “It was extraordinary.”
“Stand Back” became one of the few solo recordings that Fleetwood Mac agreed to perform in its concerts. “I never got tired of it,” Nicks reported. “'Stand Back' has always been my favorite song onstage, because…when it starts, it has an energy that comes from somewhere unknown…and it seems to have no timespace. I've never quite understood this sound…but I have never questioned it.”
Among the guests on the album were Mick Fleetwood, Tom Petty, and the Eagles' Don Henley (Nicks' former boyfriend) and Don Felder.
