Remembering Fleetwood Mac Founder Peter Green, The Soulful Voice Of British Blues

Everybody knows the name Fleetwood Mac — but few may know that the band's fame was built on the talents of a man who left the group after its third album and fell off the face of the Earth.

Peter Green died in his sleep July 25, at the age of 73. His warm voice and distinctive guitar playing propelled the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac to stardom in the U.K. His best-known composition,"Black Magic Woman," barely cracked the charts there but stormed the Top 10 in the U.S. when Santana covered it. (To his credit, Carlos Santana always paid tribute to Green). And that's pretty much the story of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, as it was originally billed – stars at home in England, and an obscure blues band with a cult following in the U.S.

Which is a shame: Simply put, Peter Green was one of the most soulful British blues singers of his generation, he was a guitar god. By the time he stepped into the spotlight, as lead guitarist