The 5 Best Stevie Nicks Songs For Getting Over A Breakup

Stevie Nicks is no stranger to heartbreak. She has a body of work reaching back more than 50 years detailing just how rocky her road to and from romance has been. Known for relationships with rock biggies like Don Henley and super producer-turned-mogul Jimmy Iovine, she's seen her share of breakups. Most of her best-known songs deal with the torment of love that doesn't work out, a largely biographical depiction of the notoriously single Stevie Nicks and her lavish life devoted to music and performing for her fans. Among the pining and regret for what didn't work out in her favor, Nicks has dropped a collection of fiery songs tailor-made for listeners in need of support while navigating breakups of their own.

Setting aside Stevie Nicks' best-known breakup songs with Fleetwood Mac — standards like "Dreams" and "Silver Springs" are already well-documented odes to splitsville — we chose a deeper Mac track that cuts to the heart of breakup emotion and offers a lifeline. The rest are taken from Nicks' solo voyage, where she revisited long-lost demo pieces and created brand-new tunes that can bolster a heart in anguish with their formidable power. Even when the boat was rocked, Nicks didn't wallow in despair for long. And if she can pull herself out of a breakup with songs that display the strength and honesty it takes to move on, then her musical missives can help lovelorn listeners do the same.

Prince's "Little Red Corvette" may have stoked Stevie Nicks' creative spark and inspired the sounds of "Stand Back," but the story being told is 100% breakup fodder. You know it as soon as you hear the lines, "One man walked away from me / First, he took my hand / Take me home." Someone has toyed with her emotions and hit the road, and that's about the last thing she's willing to accept here. The fact that musical lightning struck while she was driving with her short-lived husband after her unexpected wedding when she heard the song on the radio is pure coincidence ... or is it? 

Nicks doesn't get stuck in her feelings for long. She flips the script and takes command of the situation like only a rock goddess can: "In the middle of my room, I did not hear from you / It's all right, it's all right / You'll be standing in a line." Ouch to the scorned paramour who takes an arrow to the heart with this kind of poison on the tip. The message here: You're not the only jockeying for my attention, Romeo ... the line forms at the back.

The percolating minor-key synth heartbeat and slamming drum backbeat give the song attitude and power. Anyone pushing through a breakup who needs to remember they're the main character in their story has a hot bop to drop in this one.

"Smile at You" presents Stevie Nicks at her most fiery, a scornful, scathing declaration of her lover's infidelity that comes with instructions: "Go on, save yourself / Leave the key here / You love someone else / I shouldn't be here." If Nicks has ever used her mystical poetry on the state of her romantic affairs to level an unmistakable accusation, this one is a lulu. She doesn't pull her punches for a second, tracing the trouble back to the beginning by admitting, "My first mistake / Was to smile at you."

The song finally appeared on Fleetwood Mac's excellent 2003 album, "Say You Will." Demos of the tune had bobbed in and out of awareness from all the way back in the "Tusk" days. Several rough cuts are available online — one is even given the unfair label "angry version," though considering the lyrical content, all versions are a little angry around the edges. Knowing the backstory of the tortured, unending feud between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham most likely means this rage is righteous and thoroughly understandable. Tie it together with the details dropped in "Silver Springs" and you can solve the puzzle about what inspired the lyrics.

When the pain is fresh and the fire fills your veins, launch any version of this searing breakup record and have yourself a merry little catharsis. You're bound to feel better, or at least a little more justified in your own anger.

One of Stevie Nicks' most tuneful admissions that a love affair has run its course comes in the form of "Violet and Blue," a thunderous rocker that makes no bones about where things are going. Originally written for "The Wild Heart," her second solo album, Nicks left it off the LP and contributed it to the soundtrack of 1984's noir drama, "Against All Odds." Thanks to her faithful (yet uncredited) players on the song, the instrumentation and delivery harken back to "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," Nicks' pleading duet with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

"Soon you will be gone," Nicks sings. "Take your violet and blue mornings with you." Whether the breakup is mutual or being forced from one side of the relationship, she is resigned to the departure — and she's even rushing it along a little. The melodic motif of the organ and Nicks' vocalizations can be heard in the 1979 John Stewart song "Midnight Wind," which she contributed vocal work to while Buckingham produced it alongside Stewart.

With "Violet and Blue," Nicks helps listeners make a decisive plan to call it quits. Anyone who's come to the conclusion that things are finished and are just waiting for their boo to pack their stuff and head out will appreciate the prickly spirit of this one. It's also wildly singable, which never hurts.

When a breakup has put you in a tender, heartsick mood, the best Stevie Nicks song for the occasion is "Storms," a fan favorite from Fleetwood Mac's mercurial "Tusk" LP. Radio play made her tune "Sara" from the same album into a No. 7 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, but this hushed meditation on disconnection is every bit as powerful. "Every night you do not come," she sings, in as near a whisper as her husky voice gets, "Your softness fades away / Did I ever really care that much? / Is there anything left to say?" Here, Nicks engages in the age-old practice of convincing herself that she wasn't really in love as much as she believed, spurred on by the growing distance between her and some unnamed romantic partner (who everyone knows is Lindsey Buckingham).

The heartbreak is palpable here, even as the ever-self-aware Nicks admits, "[N]ever have I been a blue, calm sea / I have always been a storm." Even if you know your connection is destined to fail, it's challenging to admit that you probably had a lot to do with it. Nick's well-documented resistance to trimming her sails for her suitors may mean she's not in line for the long-lasting romance of her dreams. But it also means we get beautiful breakup songs like "Storms" to console our own aching hearts in times of relationship snafus. It's as if she transmutes her pain into a generous healing gift to console her listeners.

Stevie Nicks made an expensive promise to herself after joining Fleetwood Mac: She'd never look at a price tag again. Unsurprisingly, she dove head-first into the rock-n-roll lifestyle. This mean romance would ultimately take a back seat, a truth revealed tenderly in "One More Big Time Rock and Roll Star," her B-side track to the 1985 single "Talk to Me," which hit the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Think of this one as a counterpoint to "After the Glitter Fades." Where that song extolled the virtues of having her dreams come true, this one explores the downside of having your heartstrings snipped due to the trappings of stardom.

This time, Nicks is looking back on a love that's been over for a while but still stirs feelings of the times that she had. "I was crazy about you that's how it always was," she confesses. "Do you think about me now as I sing about this love," she asks, before launching into a chorus that aches: "When it rains it pours / When there's no one at the door." Oof. And you don't have to be a post-breakup rock star to feel the stab to the heart when Nicks admits, "There were candles, crystals, I was anyone's fantasy / Say I'm not 'cause the work just gets harder." If you're trying to push on with life but starry-eyed memories keep interfering, you'll totally get where she's coming from.