Highlights

• Carol Hinton's lawsuit against Fleetwood Mac claimed Stevie Nicks plagiarized her poem with hit song "Sara".
• Stevie Nicks defended her songwriting and reached a settlement with Hinton, avoiding a trial and paying her $1500.
• Nicks stood firm on her lyrics' originality, showing a demo of "Sara" from 1978 before Hinton submitted her poem in 1979.

Fleetwood Mac has as much songwriting credibility as any rock band in history. Maybe even more. The band consisted of three top-tier musicians during the 1970s and 80s: Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and the late, great Christine McVie. In short, they didn't need outside help when it came to penning radio staples and chart-topping singles.

That said, a woman named Carol Hinton sued Fleetwood Mac in 1980, claiming that Stevie Nicks had stolen lyrics from her without giving proper credit. The suit dragged on for months, and Nicks was eventually forced to clarify what happened during the songwriting process.

This piece will delve into the lawsuit, and the ultimate conclusion that the courts arrived at regarding the true authorship of the Fleetwood Mac song in question.

Carol Hinton Believed The Lyrics To The Song 'Sara' Were Stolen From Her 1978 Poem

The timeline of events is important to understanding the case for and against Carol Hinton, so we will chart things out in detail. According to the Washington Post, Hinton, a Michigan native, wrote a poem called "Sara" and submitted it to Warner Bros. for publication in November 1978.

Fleetwood Mac released their double album Tusk in October 1979, and the second single from the album, also titled "Sara", was released two months later. Hinton noticed that there were a lot of similarities between her poem and Fleetwood Mac's song of the same name, and noted that the Tusk album had been released on the record label Warner Bros. Inc.

At some point between December 1979 and May 1980, Hinton was able to get in touch with Fleetwood Mac songwriter Stevie Nicks, and discuss the fact that "Sara" the poem and the song were shockingly similar. Nicks recounted the conversation, which happened over the phone, during a Rolling Stone profile:

"There were some great similarities [in the lyrics], and I never said she didn’t write the words she wrote."

Hinton was unsatisfied with what Nicks had to say on the matter, so she decided to take legal action against Fleetwood Mac. She accused Nicks of stealing and repurposing the lyrics from her 1978 poem, and went as far as to suggest that the singer was able to gain access to the poem due to her connections at Warner Bros.

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Hinton's lawsuit was filed in May 1980, and the court proceedings would continue until July 1981.

Carol Hinton Wanted Songwriting Royalties After 'Sara' Became A Top 10 Hit

The similarities between Carol Hinton's poem and Stevie Nicks' song are unmistakable, and this is something that Nicks was forced to acknowledge. There are several lines in the poem that are identical to the song's lyrics, with the most notable examples being:

- "Drowning in a sea of love"

- "When you build your house, call me"

The specificity of these words led many to assume that Hinton had a strong case. She was angling to claim songwriting royalties for "Sara", which had become a worldwide smash by 1980, peaking at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.

That being said, Nicks was not going to let someone lay claim to her song. She told Rolling Stone that she was not going to give up any of the royalties or songwriting credits to "Sara", and she'd rather pay out of her own pocket than be labeled a musical thief:

"[Hinton] picked the wrong songwriter. To call me a thief about my first love, my songs, that’s going too far."

Nicks had an ace in the hole: a demo recording of "Sara" that she made in July 1978, well before Hinton submitted her poem to Warner Bros. She also pointed to the differences in the subject matter between her song and Hinton's poem.

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In her 2014 autobiography, Stevie Nicks revealed that the song was inspired by an affair that her boyfriend at the time, Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, had with a woman named "Sara." The "Sara" in question was Nicks' best friend, Sara Recor. Hinton's poem, meanwhile, was confirmed to be about an unborn child.

Carol Hinton Dropped The Suit After Stevie Nicks Agreed To Pay Her $1500

Stevie Nicks provided a detailed defense against Carol Hinton's lawsuit. Not only did she provide the aforementioned "Sara" demo dating back to July 1978, but she called upon the testimony of band members and fellow musicians like Eagles singer Don Henley to confirm that they heard the demo shortly after it was made.

Despite this evidence, the court case drew on. Nicks' attorney, Mickey Shapiro, told the Washington Post that the case was taking an emotional toll on the singer, and serving as a source of embarrassment given the pride she takes in her songwriting.

"Stevie feels very hurt by this. She sees her song as children. I think the case will be heard on its own merits."

It will never be made clear whether Nicks would have won the case outright, because she eventually decided to settle out of court with Hinton. She wanted to speed up the process, according to UPI Archives, and agreed to pay Hinton $1500 out of her own pocket.

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When asked to explain how her song and Hinton's poem wound up being so similar, Nicks chalked it up to simple "karma." She also asserted that Hinton should not have accused her of stealing lyrics, as she could have done the same thing to Hinton given the time period in which she recorded the demo:

"Don’t tell me I didn’t write the words I wrote."

"Sara" remains one of the most personal songs in Stevie Nicks' catalog, and she would even revisit the name, and the themes of the song, on the 1987 album cut "Welcome to the Room... Sara." Tellingly, Nicks is listed as the sole songwriter on both.

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