Looking for a title track for the as yet unnamed Fleetwood Mac album in 1979, Mick Fleetwood suggested that they take a rehearsal riff the band used to play as the lights came up and they were introduced to the audience when they played live.

In 1995, Fleetwood explained how it happened: "In soundchecks we used to jam on that riff, and I did the riff in drum form. When it came time to make the album, we pulled that riff out, screwed around with it, put it in the dustbin, and then a year into making that album, I pulled it out again and took it with me as a rough track to Normandy (France) and came up with the idea of using the brass band on it after hearing local brass bands marching through the streets. I thought we should use about 100 drummers on it, which we did. That really worked. It's a glorious noise, and it's something I'm proud of because it's all drums. There's really no lyrics to it.”

At the request of Fleetwood, the band teamed up with the University of Southern California's Trojan Marching Band to play on the single. A mobile studio was installed in Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium to capture the marching band. The recording session for the marching band took place on June 4, 1979. At that time the group's bass player John McVie, had a falling out with Lindsey Buckingham and never made it to Dodger Stadium , so he was replaced in the video with a cardboard cutout. The cutout was carried around by Mick Fleetwood and later positioned in the stands with the other band members

There are a lot of theories about the album title. Depending on the source, the name was inspired by the African nature photography of Peter Beard (who worked on the surreal collages that adorn the album’s inner packaging). No one seems to agree on the origins of Tusk’s mysterious title.

Various Sources