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Got a Hold on Me

1984 single by Christine McVie

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ5587691 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Got a Hold on Me" is a song by Christine McVie, released as the lead single from her eponymous second solo album in 1984. Synthesizers on the track were played by Steve Winwood, while the guitars were played by Todd Sharp (the song's co-writer) and McVie's Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. George Hawkins handled some of the song's background vocals.

Sharp recalled that he wrote the song with McVie section by section over the course of 30 minutes and had identified the song's commercial viability upon hearing the first verse. McVie stated that the song's subject matter was fictional, saying that "at the time I wrote it, no one did have a hold on me."

Release

The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary and Rock Tracks charts for four and two weeks, respectively. During the week of 20 January 1984, the song was added to 92 album oriented rock (AOR) radio stations in the United States, amounting to over 50% of all AOR stations that reported their airplay to Radio & Records. In the 10 March 1984 edition of Billboard, Paul Grein noted that it was the first time any member of Fleetwood Mac had achieved a number one hit on the Adult Contemporary chart.

In 1985, "Got a Hold on Me" received a most-performed-song citation at BMI's 33rd annual award dinner, which commemorated songs licensed by BMI that received heavy airplay in 1984.

The video for the song was produced by Jon Roseman and directed by Mike Brady. Shot in both black-and-white and color, it is a pseudo-performance video showing Christine McVie in a mansion-like room singing at her piano while a backup band appears in silhouette shadows on the walls around her.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Got a Hold on Me” as 1984 single by Christine McVie. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1984, 1985—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1984-01-25. The account is most persuasive where Hold, single and Christine can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1984 single by Christine McVie. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5587691. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1984 and 1985.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Got a Hold on Me primary sources, Got a Hold on Me archive and Hold research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Got a Hold on Me” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.