The Chain

It began as Christine McVie's Keep Me There, the first track recorded for Rumours, tracked on 2 February 1976. Only the ending of that recording survived: the bass progression John McVie and Fleetwood created, with a fretless bass part that marks the song's last third. The rest was assembled from rejected material by Buckingham, Nicks and McVie, with the band cutting tape with a razor blade at the Record Plant in Sausalito. Buckingham reused the intro of Lola (My Love) from the Buckingham Nicks album, and a Dobro supplies the verse riff. The lyrics came from Nicks, who had written them for a different song. Buckingham said it was retitled The Chain because it was a bunch of pieces, and Nicks has maintained it was primarily her song.

The BBC used the closing bass line as the theme to its Formula One coverage from 1978 to 1996 and again from 2009 to 2015. It entered the UK singles chart through downloads in 2009 and reached 67 in 2025. A live version from The Dance was released to US rock radio in September 1997 and reached 30 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.