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Fleetwood Mac · S4 E7
Don't Stop
Optimism from the wreckage. Christine and Lindsey trade verses. Bill Clinton will use it fifteen years later
January 20, 1993, an inaugural ball in Washington D.C. Bill Clinton walks to the stage, the band kicks in, and "Don't Stop" becomes the first Fleetwood Mac song ever played at a presidential inauguration.
Fleetwood Mac, Don't Stop (official music video, 1977). Christine and Lindsey trading verses, the rhythm section locked in, and an irresistible chorus that makes you believe tomorrow really will be better than today.
The Unlikeliest Anthem
Christine McVie wrote "Don't Stop" during the darkest period of the Rumours sessions, and somehow it came out sounding like pure optimism. She and Buckingham trade verses, their voices alternating with an ease that masks the fact that both are going through breakups.
Don't Stop, Fleetwood Mac (1977)
Christine wrote "Don't Stop" as a direct counterpart to her other Rumours track "You Make Loving Fun," both songs about choosing to move forward after pain. The arrangement is built on a rolling piano figure and a shuffle beat from Fleetwood that gives the whole thing a locomotive momentum. Buckingham and McVie split the vocals, alternating verses in a way that sounds like a conversation between two people who have both been hurt and are both choosing to look ahead.
“I wrote it thinking about my divorce. But it came out sounding happy, which surprised even me. Sometimes the best songs lie to you in the best possible way.”
— Christine McVie, interview with The Guardian, 2017
TAP TO REVEAL: How did "Don't Stop" end up as a presidential campaign anthem?
Which US president used "Don't Stop" as his campaign anthem?
Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac
Another Christine McVie classic, from Tango in the Night (1987). Where "Don't Stop" is guitar-driven optimism, "Little Lies" wraps a similar emotional hopefulness in shimmering synth-pop production. Christine and Buckingham collaborate again, and the result is one of the band's biggest hits at #4 on the Hot 100.
Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac (1987)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies." Christine wrapping hopefulness in synth-pop shimmer.
The optimism is over. Stevie Nicks has one more song on Rumours, and it is the darkest thing on the record: a cocaine confession wrapped in gothic desert rock. Next: "Gold Dust Woman."
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