Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks is the high priestess of her own reli-gion, ruling a world of prancing Gypsies, gold-dust princesses, and white-winged doves, all without going anywhere near a sensible shoe. Like David Bowie or Bryan Ferry, she has spent a career turning her private fantasies into an elaborate pop mythology. As she confesses in 1983's "Nightbird," "I wear boots all summer long." The Nicks mystique has inspired everything from Sandra Bernhard's performance piece "The Women of Rock & Roll" to the annual New York drag-queen festival Night of a Thousand Stevies. And even when Stevie gets carried away, she still has that husky ache in her voice.

The Fleetwood Mac siren made her solo debut with Bella Donna, which included her Don Henley duet "Leather and Lace," her Tom Petty duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," and "Edge of Seventeen (Just Like a White-Winged Dove)." After The Wild Heart, which has the great "Stand Back," the solo albums bog down in bloated production and vague songwriting. Enchanted is a definitive three-CD retrospective; the emotional highlight is "Ooh My Love" (originally buried on the otherwise forgettable The Other Side of the Mirror), a fabulous song about a princess who feels like a prisoner in her own castle even though she's terrified of the world outside. It's Nicks' love letter to her fans, and it makes you admire her compassion for the lost girls in her flock. She's lasted so long because she remembers how it feels to teeter in high heels on the edge of 17. (ROB SHEFFIELD)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide