Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop

When Yesterday’s Gone Became Tomorrow’s Hope

Fleetwood Mac released “Don’t Stop” as the third US single from Rumours in June 1977, four months after the album had already dominated charts worldwide. Christine McVie wrote the song about her ex-husband John McVie, the band’s bass player who had to perform it nightly without realizing it was about him until someone pointed it out years later. He admitted in a 2015 Mojo interview that he’d never put it together, that he’d been playing it for years before discovering Chris wrote it about their divorce. The track peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in September after spending 18 weeks on the chart, blocked from higher positions but becoming one of 1977’s defining moments. In the UK, where it released as the second single in April, it reached only number 32 despite the album hitting number one. The song’s original title was “Yesterday’s Gone,” which John McVie suggested changing to Rumours for the entire album since everyone in Southern California was gossiping about their personal dramas anyway.

The chart performance revealed Rumours as a phenomenon transcending individual singles. The album debuted at number one in March 1977 and stayed there for 31 non-consecutive weeks, eventually selling over 40 million copies worldwide. Four tracks from Rumours cracked the top ten: “Go Your Own Way” at number ten, “Dreams” at number one for one week, “You Make Loving Fun” at number nine, and “Don’t Stop” at number three for two weeks. In Canada, the song hit number one for one week in September. The song won no Grammys despite the album taking Album of the Year in 1978, but The Guardian and Paste later ranked it number four and number 25 respectively on their lists of greatest Fleetwood Mac songs. The Guardian noted the rhythm and chorus were so impossibly buoyant that they canceled out the unhappiness that provoked them.

Christine McVie had filed for divorce from John while Fleetwood Mac was on the road, admitting to Rolling Stone in 1977 that she was aware it was irresponsible but necessary for her sanity. The trials of juggling marriage while touring had become unbearable. She wrote “Don’t Stop” as a positive message to her former lover, an encouragement to leave the past behind and focus on tomorrow. The song wasn’t spiteful despite the pain, reflecting what she described as a pleasant revelation that yesterday was gone. She told interviewers it might have been directed toward John but that she wasn’t a pessimist. Meanwhile, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were dissolving their romantic relationship and writing songs about each other, while Mick Fleetwood navigated divorce from his wife Jenny. The studio became a battleground where heartbreak fueled creativity instead of destroying it.
Recording sessions began March 16, 1976, at Record Plant in Sausalito, California, tracking drums, bass, electric guitar, and electric piano under the working title “Yesterday’s Gone.” Producer Ken Caillat captured take 25 as the master after Christine asked Lindsey to sing it as a duet, a decision Caillat later said improved things dramatically. The band relocated to Los Angeles for overdubs, where McVie and Buckingham decided the key wasn’t suitable. They scrapped all instrumentation except Mick Fleetwood’s drums and started over. On August 9, McVie replaced the electric piano with a tack piano, an instrument with metal thumbtacks attached to hammers that created the distinctive percussive sound. The backing vocals Caillat praised for constantly changing represented classic Fleetwood Mac’s gift for harmonies, with the band singing backgrounds that shifted every take, keeping producers guessing.

The album Rumours established Fleetwood Mac as arena rock royalty after their self-titled 1975 breakthrough had sold seven million copies. Buckingham and Nicks had joined January 1, 1975, with Buckingham insisting his girlfriend be included as condition of acceptance. Within two years, they’d created one of history’s best-selling albums while their personal relationships imploded spectacularly. Christine McVie later reflected in a 1997 interview that if she hadn’t joined Fleetwood Mac, she and John might still be together, but touring destroyed what domesticity might have preserved. Peter Green had been their best man when they married in 1968. By 1976, the marriage was another casualty of life on the road, though both remained professional enough to keep working together for years.

The song’s influence extended far beyond sales into American political history. Bill Clinton made “Don’t Stop” his 1992 presidential campaign theme song after his staff briefly considered Garth Brooks’ “We Shall Be Free.” Clinton settled on McVie’s message about tomorrow over yesterday, using it at the Democratic National Convention during the final night balloon drop. Upon winning the election, Clinton persuaded the band to reunite for his 1993 inaugural ball, bringing together the Rumours lineup that hadn’t performed together since 1982. Buckingham had quit before the 1987 Tango In The Night tour, and Nicks left in 1991. Clinton’s presidential persuasion accomplished what years of negotiations couldn’t, reuniting them for one performance that jumpstarted their transformation into the arena act they’d become. The Greatest Hits album jumped from number 30 to number 11 on the Catalog Albums Chart afterward. At the 2000 convention, Clinton ended his speech by saying don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, and the song immediately blared over loudspeakers.

Christine McVie performed “Don’t Stop” for the final time with Fleetwood Mac on November 20, 2019, at Dreamfest in San Francisco’s Oracle Park. The band closed their set with it, making the song her swan song without anyone knowing it would be her last performance. She died November 30, 2022, at age 79 after a short illness, with Stevie Nicks leading tributes to her bandmate and friend. The song had become McVie’s theme tune, fitting that it marked the end of her tenure. In September 2013, during the band’s London O2 shows, McVie joined them on stage for “Don’t Stop” after years away, marking a rare full-band reunion. Buckingham reportedly told the others she couldn’t just come and go, that her presence needed commitment. Nina Nesbitt covered it for a 2013 John Lewis ad, reaching number 61 on UK charts. Elton John and Status Quo both recorded versions. The 1997 live album The Dance closed with the song performed alongside the University of Southern California marching band, with McVie admitting they’d never done it with a brass section before.

Producer Ken Caillat admitted he was never fond of “Don’t Stop,” citing grievances with the tempo and drum sound, but Christine McVie loved it until her death. Caillat praised the backing vocals after the final chorus, recognizing them as classic Fleetwood Mac’s incredible singing. Cash Box called Mick Fleetwood and John McVie a deadly rhythm section, especially on straight-ahead shuffles like this one. The song proved that the best pop comes from real pain transformed into optimism, that divorce could inspire messages about hope instead of bitterness. When Christine McVie sang about yesterday being gone and tomorrow being another day, she was speaking to John McVie while speaking to everyone who’d ever needed permission to move forward. The song Bill Clinton chose to represent hope in 1992 was the same song a divorced keyboardist wrote to free herself and her ex-husband from their shared past. That’s why it worked. That’s why it endured. Christine McVie turned her heartbreak into the ultimate anthem about letting go, and America elected a president who understood that message could unite a nation. The song John McVie played for years without understanding became the one that defined his ex-wife’s legacy, proving that sometimes the person a song is about is the last one to hear what it’s really saying.