The Chain is a song from Fleetwood Mac's best-selling album Rumours. "The Chain" is unique in being the only song credited to all five members of the Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac lineup: Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, Stevie Nicks; this is partly due to the fact that John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are generally not songwriters. The band has used the song as a signature, citing the lyric, "Never break the chain."

According to interviews on the writing of Rumours, the final section of "The Chain" — beginning with a bass progression — was created by John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. It seemed like an ending, not a beginning. Stevie Nicks had written the lyrics separately and thought they would be a good match; she and Christine McVie did some reworking to create the first section of the tune. To complete the song, Lindsey Buckingham recycled the intro from an earlier Buckingham/Nicks song - "Lola My Love", originally released on their eponymous 1973 album. Thanks to its use as a TV theme (for the BBC's Formula One coverage), the ending bass line is one of the most recognizable in the world, and although not released as a single, it does get air play.

The song itself has a basic rock structure, although it has two distinct portions: the main verse and chorus, and the outro. The song would be classified as rock, but shows the influence of hard rock, folk, and country.

The start of the studio version of this song has, in a very quiet whisper, the word "fuck". This can only be heard on tracks released on CD. Because of the limited dynamic range, it is not audible on the original vinyl LP, cassette or 8-track releases.