Happy Anniversary: Lindsey Buckingham, Law & Order

33 years ago today, Lindsey Buckingham – having temporarily set aside his work with Fleetwood Mac –released his first solo album, an effort which also went on to earn him his first hit single as a solo artist.

Between Fleetwood Mac releasing Tusk in 1979 and recording their 1982 album, Mirage, the aforementioned Mr. Buckingham took a little time for himself in 1981, and between some sessions at Larrabee Sound Studios in southern California and some other sessions at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, he pulled together a piece of work which, while certainly a little less mainstream in sound at times, still had enough hooks and harmonies to send it to #32 on the Billboard Top 200.

Inevitably, the signature song of Law & Order is the one that proved to be the biggest hit: “Trouble,” a co-write between Buckingham and his musical cohort, Richard Dashut, which hit #9 in the US in the early months of 1982 and also made it to #31 in the UK. (It probably didn’t hurt the song’s success any that its music video featured an all-star cast, including Mick Fleetwood, Walter Egan, Dwight Twilley, and former Fleetwood Mac guitarists Bob Welch and Bob Weston.)

The only other charting single from the album, a cover of Gary Paxton’s “It Was I,” wasn’t nearly as successful – in fact, it didn’t even make it onto the Billboard Hot 100, although it did bubble under it – but there’s still plenty of great stuff to be found within, including opener “Bwana (The Visitor),” “Mary Lee Jones,” and “Shadow of the West,” which features backing vocals from Christine McVie. If the only thing you know of Law & Order is “Trouble,” then now’s a fine time to educate yourself further.