This Fleetwood Mac Breakup Song From 1977 Became the Face of a Presidential Campaign

If you know 70s pop culture, you know breakups played an essential role in the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. It was songs like “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way” that chronicled the crash and burn of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ long-term relationship. However, it was songs like “Don’t Stop” that told the story of another ex-couple in the group.

In August of 1968, John and Christine McVie got married after being together for a mere two weeks. The two had met while Fleetwood Mac and the blues band Chicken Shack were sharing a stage. Christine played piano and sang for the group before Fleetwood Mac. In 1976, however, the two would get divorced. Christine later cited constant close proximity and alcohol problems as catalysts for the split.

“I broke up with John in the middle of a tour,” she told Rolling Stone in 1977. “I was aware of it being rather irresponsible; I had to do it for my sanity. It was either that or me ending up in a lunatic asylum.”

It was “Don’t Stop” that McVie would use to put a positive spin on a tricky situation. Ironically though, she was the only one between her and John who knew what the song was about when Rumours was released.

“I’ve been playing it for years and it wasn’t until somebody told me, ‘Chris wrote that about you,’” John McVie once shared with Mojo magazine. “Oh really?”

How “Don’t Stop” Would Bring Fleetwood Mac Together In 1993

By the early 90s, Fleetwood Mac’s cohesiveness as a band had grown thin. Buckingham had already left after Tango In The Night, and the group hadn’t had success with a project like Rumours in quite some time. By 1992, the band had pretty much dispersed.

It was a presidential campaign that year that would briefly bring them back together, and it was McVie’s very own breakup anthem that would prompt this brief reunion.

Bill Clinton chose “Don’t Stop” as the theme song for his campaign, in part to appeal to that generation of voters, and also in part because he related to the song’s story within his own marriage. When he won the race, the group performed the song at his inaugural gala in 1993. It was this event that put the nail in the coffin in terms of Fleetwood Mac’s inevitable end, at least according to Nicks.

“At the inauguration, I just realized I wanted it to be back the way it was, or I didn’t want to be in it anymore,” Nicks would later tell the Houston Press. “For me, it made me realize that it had to be that five, or it couldn’t be. I couldn’t continue to be in a Fleetwood Mac that didn’t have Lindsey in it.”

Photo by: Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images