Don’t Stop Me Now, April 13th

During the summer of 1984 I did a teen tour of the continental United States. About 40 15 year olds with limited supervision on a luxury tour bus crisscrossing the country visiting Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls and so much more for seven solid weeks. And since our only mode of transportation was a bus, some days the ride was an hour and some days it was most of the day. So those who brought audio entertainment were very fortunate, especially on the long haul days.

The soundtrack of that summer can be summed up by one particular cassette: The Madonna Tape. That’s what we called it. It was Madonna’s premiere album just called Madonna. Not everybody on the bus had a Walkman at the time including moi. But if you were lucky enough to borrow one from a friend for a bit, the only tape you wanted to hear was Madonna. My favorite song was I Know It. It was hard to have that song blasting in my ears and not get up and dance like a fool! Still when I hear it I just want to break out and show off my moves, including the white man’s overbite a la Billy Crystal. It got my adrenaline pumping like crazy. Years later I added I Know It to my running mix and used to just fly when that some came on. I felt unstoppable. That beat was just incredible.

I am also a huge fan of the band Queen. I don’t know a teenager alive in the year 1986 who didn’t bang the bleachers twice and then clap to We Will Rock You during a home football game. Or what about swaying arm in arm after a big basketball win to We Are The Champions after North beat South at the buzzer? (Go Rams!) Been there? Loved that.

Even my wedding video featured the popular Queen song You’re My Best Friend. It was fitting at the time. And I thought I knew so much of the band’s music. But it wasn’t until I saw the movie Bohemian Rhapsody that I heard Don’t Stop Me Now. I was on a flight to San Francisco and Delta was featuring the movie in their new release category. I was so excited to see it. I eagerly watched Bohemian Rhapsody from start to finish and heard Don’t Stop Me Now as the final song as the credits were rolling. It was so inspirational and toe tapping. Powerful and a great sing along. I loved it. And the flight was so long and the movie was so good, that I doubled down and watched it again before we landed.

After a tough work trip in SF, I eased back into my Comfort Plus seat and you guessed it, booted up BoRha again. And again! So in the span of a week, I saw the flick four fantastic times. And each time I got to the credits rolling and heard Don’t Stop Me Now, I doubled back and listened again. Wow. Amazing.

A few weeks later I was flying to Costa Rica for an industry conference and in addition to racking up oh so many travel miles, I added two more viewings of BoRha to my movie roster total. I had already memorized some of the lines by this point. Of course. And that song was a total earworm.

Years later I was at an IWRIC Conference of fabulous female bankruptcy attorneys and one of the ice breakers was to stand up and move/sing/dance to your “walk up” song– the song that plays in your head when you’re about to present in court. Not being an attorney I thought of two songs that immediately got me all riled up. Of course I had to decide between I Know It and Don’t Stop Me Now. Needless to say Her Majesty Queen won by an inscisor. And yeah, the minute I heard the tune, I acted it out singing into a pretend microphone when it was my turn. I literally couldn’t help myself!

Later I found out that Don’t Stop Me Now is widely considered one of the happiest songs in the world, often ranking number one in studies focused on feel good music. Who knew there was even such a thing?? In 2015 a study by cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jacob Jolij found it perfectly matches the formula for an upbeat, mood-boosting track: a fast tempo (156 BPM), major key, and energetic, positive lyrics. There is actual science that triggers feelings of joy and high energy. Well they certainly got my number. Other songs in this category are ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. Sadly they left out the Queen of Pop, Madonna. But I know she belongs in this group. I Know It.