Don't Stop

Album

Brothers in Arms

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Genre

Pop rock

Composer(s)

Christine McVie

Entered Chart

Jul 9, 1977

Peak Date

Sep 24, 1977

Released

1 April 1977

Recorded

1976

Catalog #

Warner Bros. 8413

B-Side

Never Going Back Again

Christine McVie wrote this song about leaving the past behind. She and John McVie (Fleetwood Mac's bass player) were splitting up, which inspired the lyrics. This caused some awkward moments, since John had to play a song written about him. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were also going through a breakup and writing songs about each other ("Go Your Own Way," "Dreams"), and Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce. All the tension in the studio didn't seem to hurt - Rumours is one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album was going to be called "Yesterday's Gone," after a line in this song. John McVie suggested "Rumours" because it seemed like everyone in Southern California was talking about the personal drama Fleetwood Mac was going through. Bill Clinton used "Don't Stop" as his theme song when he successfully ran for US president in 1992. He was the first baby boomer president, and he knew Fleetwood Mac would appeal to a lot of voters in this demographic. There was some subtext to this pairing of song and politician: Clinton was a known philanderer and had been through some rough times with his wife Hillary. The song finds Christine McVie offering her husband a chance to move forward despite his transgressions: Why not think about times to come And not about the things that you've done The vast majority of listeners didn't pick up on this, as it was heard as a song of hope and renewal in the context of the campaign. When Bill Clinton won the presidential election, Fleetwood Mac was thrust back into the spotlight because his campaign had used this song at every opportunity. At the time, the band was fractured, with Lindsey Buckingham out of the lineup since 1987 and Stevie Nicks out since 1991. And while Clinton couldn't push through universal health care, he was able to get the Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac back together, as Buckingham and Nicks joined John and Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood to perform at his inaugural gala in 1993 the day before he was sworn into office. Nothing came of the one-off reunion, and the band spent the next few years punching below their weight, even opening for REO Speedwagon. In 1997, Buckingham and Nicks returned to the fold and Fleetwood Mac were once again an arena act, embarking on their wildly successful The Dance tour. On September 26, 2013, the band welcomed old friend Christine McVie to the stage in London's O2 Arena. The singer-keyboardist, who quit the group in 1998, sang her own "Don't Stop," marking a rare full-band reunion. >> John McVie didn't twig for a long time that Chrissie McVie wrote the song about him. He told Mojo magazine in 2015: "I never put that together. I've been playing it for years and it wasn't until somebody told me, 'Chris wrote that about you.' Oh really?" The Scottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt covered this for a 2013 John Lewis ad. Her version peaked at #61 on the UK singles chart.

If you wake up and don't want to smile
If it takes just a little while
Open your eyes, look at the day
You'll see things in a different way

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be, better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

Why not think about times to come?
And not about the things that you've done
If your life was bad to you
We'll just do what tomorrow will do

So don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be, better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone (gone)

All I want is to see you smile
If it takes just a little while
I know you don't believe that it's true
I never meant any harm to you

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be, better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be, better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

Ooh, don't you look back
Ooh, don't you look back (don't you look back)
Ooh, don't you look back
Ooh, don't you look back (yeah yeah yeah)

Thanks a lot, goodnight
We'll see ya

God bless, thanks very much everyone for coming
Thank you, goodnight

Take care of yourselves and we'll see you soon
And thank you so much

Thanks so much for being here
Making this a very special night for us
It's been a long time

God bless