I Don't Want To Know

"I Don't Want To Know" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and released on Fleetwood Mac's 1977 Rumoursalbum. It was exclusively an album track in all territories except Japan, where it was released as the b-side to the region-exclusive "Oh Daddy" single. The song is notable in that it is the only track from Rumours to never be performed by Fleetwood Mac on any live tour.

## Background

The song was originally written by Nicks for the never-completed *Buckingham Nicks II* album, being performed live several times on the *Buckingham Nicks* tour. In a SiriusXM interview, Buckingham noted that the song was considered for inclusion on the 1975 Fleetwood Mac album but was dropped due to the presence of other similarly uptempo songs like "Blue Letter", "Monday Morning", "Say You Love Me", and "Sugar Daddy".

"I Don't Want to Know" was recorded late in the *Rumours* recording sessions, when it was decided that Nicks' originally-slated "Silver Springs" was too long and needed to be replaced with a shorter, "lighter" song. The song was first recorded by the band without Nicks with Buckingham on lead and harmony vocals (see "Alternate Versions") before Mick Fleetwood broke the news about the decision to her. In a later interview Nicks recalled that she "started to scream bloody murder and probably said every horribly mean thing that you could possibly say to another human being and walked back in the studio completely flipped out". She relented when she was told that if she did not cooperate in the recording of "I Don't Want to Know" she would only have two songs on Rumours. As she described it, "With a gun to my head, I went out and sang ‘I Don’t Want to Know’".

Producer Ken Caillat offered a different version of events, stating that Nicks was compliant in the removal of "Silver Springs" in order to make room for more upbeat material. "...we gave her the option that we could cut one of the slow songs down so we could have room for the other ones or we could take one of the other songs off and she said, ‘Let’s do it.’ She wanted to keep all of the other songs more than ‘Silver Springs.'”

### Personnel

Stevie Nicks - vocals, hand-claps

Lindsey Buckingham - 12 string guitar, electric guitar, vocals

Christine McVie - keyboards

John McVie - bass

Mick Fleetwood - drums, tambourine

### Alternate Versions

An early take of the song was included on the 35th Anniversary "Super Deluxe" Reissue of *Rumours* which features Buckingham's inital take on lead and harmony vocals before Nicks' were recorded.

Another bootlegged alternate mix exists in circulation on which is identical to the album version without the handclap overdubs.

## Reception

Nicks admitted that the role "I Don't Want to Know" had in replacing "Silver Springs" on the album always "cast a shadow" over the song for her, but admitted that she "loved it, and it came out great". The song was never publicly played by the band, the only track from Rumours to do so.

### In Popular Culture

The song was featured on a 2013 *Saturday Night Live* skit called "Diner Divorce" in which a couple's intense arguments would cease as soon as the song was played.

### Cover Versions

* Alternative rock band The Goo Goo Dolls covered the song for the 1998 album *Legacy - A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.* It later appeared on their 2008 *Greatest Hits Vol. 2* compilation. The cover was postively received, with *Consequence of Sound* naming it in their Top 10 Best Fleetwood Mac Cover Songs, stating that the Goo Goo Dolls successfully reformatted the song for a new generation of 90's listeners by adding "hoarse vocals, power chords, and wailing guitars in the background".
* The song was featured on the television show *Glee* in the episode "Rumours", performed by Dianna Argon and Corey Monteith. The cover was warmly received by critics, with John Kubicek of *BuddyTV* comparing it favroably to the original while noting that Monteith sang "with the subtlety of an artillery barrage" with Argons strong supporting vocals. It was released as a single but did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, the only song of the episode not to do so.