Writer: Stevie Nicks
Producer: Jimmy Iovine
Recorded: Early 1981 in Los Angeles
Released: July 27, 1981
| Players: | Stevie Nicks — vocals Don Henley — vocals Waddy Wachtel — guitar Roy Bittan — piano Russ Kunkel — drums |
| Album: | Bella Donna (Atlantic, 1981) |
Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks was “commissioned” to write “Leather And Lace” by country great Waylon Jennings, who was looking for a duet to perform with his wife, Jessi Colter. Nicks noted, “I worked very hard trying to explain what it was like to be in love with someone in the same business, and how to approach dealing with each other. It’s probably the hardest thing in the world to do because it falls out of your hands and into the hands of the world, which tends to want you to not be able to handle it.”
Nicks was able to write the song from personal experience. At the time, she was dating Don Henley of the Eagles, who wound up being her duet partner for the song. “He came over (to the studio) every day and told me to either start over or that I was on the right track, and he made me finish it (because I almost gave up many times). When it was finally finished, Don and I made a very simple demo of it, and it was truly wonderful…I told Waylon that only four people in this world could sing this song: he and his wife, or myself and Don Henley.”
Jennings and Colter didn’t sing it, however–they broke up before it was finished. Jennings wanted to perform the song himself, but Nicks decided to keep it for her debut solo album.
Released as a single in October 1981, “Leather And Lace” reached Number Six on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Bella Donna album hit Number One on the Billboard 200 and Number 11 in the U.K.
The album has sold more than four million copies and remains the best-selling of Nicks’s six solo albums.