Then Play On

Then Play On was the first Fleetwood Mac album to use editing and overdubbing extensively, and the first with Danny Kirwan. Fleetwood said the band knew what it did not want to do, which was make another record of Spencer singing Elmore James. Green gave Kirwan half of the songwriting. The engineer Martin Birch recalled Green arriving with demos made at home and working through the parts with him after the others left. Underway, Searching for Madge and Fighting for Madge were assembled by Green from studio jams. The title comes from the opening line of Twelfth Night.

It reached number six in the UK. Reviews at the time were mixed, with Rolling Stone's John Morthland saying the band had fallen flat on their faces, while Melody Maker said it would surprise anyone who thought of them as a straight blues band. Green said he loved every minute of it, though he thought they should have kept Mike Vernon as producer. Fleetwood named it his favourite Fleetwood Mac album in his 2013 autobiography. The single Oh Well followed, reaching number two in the UK.