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Bella Donna by  ReleasedJuly 27, 1981RecordedAutumn 1980 – Spring 1981 Length41:55  chronologyBella Donna
(1981)
(1983) from Bella Donna ""
Released: July 8, 1981 ""
Released: October 6, 1981 ""
Released: February 5, 1982 ""
Released: 1982 Professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRating

Bella Donna is the debut solo studio album by American singer and songwriter . Released on July 27, 1981, the album reached number one on the US  in September of that year. Bella Donna was awarded  status by the  (RIAA) on October 7, 1981, less than three months after its release, and in 1990 was certified quadruple-platinum for four million copies shipped. Bella Donna spent nearly three years on the Billboard 200 from July 1981 to June 1984.

The album spawned four  during 1981 and 1982: the -penned duet "" (#3), the  duet "" (#6), her  "" (#11) and -tinged "" (#32).

Bella Donna would mark the beginning of Nicks' trend of calling upon her many musician friends and connections to fully realize her sparse demo recordings. Along with friends  and , Nicks brought in session musician , 's   , and  session man  of . Though Bella Donna's personnel list includes some 20 musicians, the album is very much Nicks' own work, with all but one of the songs on the record written by her. The album also marked the first recording featuring Nicks' backing vocalists, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who still record and tour with Nicks today.

The album was also included in the "Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums" chart.

History

Nicks began work on Bella Donna in 1979, in between sessions for her third album as part of Fleetwood Mac, , released in October that year. Nicks recorded various demo versions of songs early and mid-1980 but these recordings were not used on the album. Following the end of the Tusk tour on September 1, 1980, work with a full band of other musicians commenced under producer .

Recording sessions continued until the spring of 1981 when the final songs for the album were completed: "" and "". The 10-song, 42-minute album Bella Donna was released in the summer of 1981. Nicks wrote "Think About It" for her friend and  bandmate, . A number of finished songs did not make it on the album, including "Blue Lamp", which was released instead on the  soundtrack later in 1981, and "Sleeping Angel", released on the  soundtrack in 1982. These two songs were included on Nicks'  boxed set in 1998, along with another unused Bella Donna session song, "Gold and Braid". Three more songs from these sessions, "If You Were My Love", "Belle Fleur" and "The Dealer," were finally released on Nicks' 2014 album .

On her  boxed set release in 1998, remastered versions of some Bella Donna tracks ran noticeably longer in some instances, notably "Leather And Lace".

Video footage of the album sessions can be found on the DVD portion of Nicks' 2007 retrospective release .

Rhino released an expanded version of Bella Donna on November 4, 2016. This includes three discs. The first disc is the remastered original album. The second disc includes outtakes, alternative versions, demos and more. The third disc consists of live tracks from Nicks' "White Wing Dove" tour 1981, recorded at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles, California on December 13, 1981.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Stevie Nicks, except "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", by ; all music is composed by Nicks, except where noted.

No.TitleMusicLength1."Bella Donna" 5:212."Kind of Woman" Nicks 3:123."" (with )4:044."Think About It" Nicks 3:355."" 3:316."" 5:287."How Still My Love" 3:548."" (with ) 3:449."Outside the Rain" 4:1910."The Highwayman" 4:49