–By Brandon
“Don’t Stop”… no, not that one. Not that one either. This post is about the Fleetwood Mac song. You know, that really happy-sounding song about divorce. Wait, what? “Don’t Stop” was written by singer Christine McVie about moving on following her separation from bassist John McVie, after eight years of marriage (think “yesterday’s gone”). While it may seem awkward to have a former-husband-and-wife duo perform a song about their own divorce, this occurrence was surprisingly not uncommon on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album. During production for Rumours, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were also breaking up (and writing “Go Your Own Way” and “Dreams,” each regarding the end of their relationship), and Mick Fleetwood was also getting divorced–and somehow all this drama produced one of the best-selling albums ever.
As an interesting political aside, Bill Clinton used “Don’t Stop” as his theme song during his 1992 presidential campaign and was even able to reunite the band to perform at his 1993 inauguration. The song has an interesting parallel in hindsight, written by a woman who is moving on after her husband’s past wrongs (“Why not think about times to come/And not about the things that you’ve done”).