Freddie Mercury | Autograph manuscript draft lyrics for 'Don't Stop Me Now', c.1978

Freddie Mercury

Autograph manuscript working lyrics to 'Don't Stop Me Now'

comprising four pages each with a partial revised draft of the song, on lined A4 paper, and three additional pages with early fragments ("Don't stop me now / I'm having a Good Time yeah / Leave me alone") with unrelated fragments, blue, red and black ink, 6 leaves, c.1978

FREDDIE MERCURY'S WORKING DRAFT LYRICS TO HIS EXUBERANT CELEBRATION OF HEDONISM, WHICH HAS BECOME ONE OF QUEEN'S MOST POPULAR SONGS. 

'Don't Stop Me Now' has a history that is very different from most of Queen's major hits. Today it is the band's second most streamed song (after 'Bohemian Rhapsody'); it has been used to advertise everything from cars to almond milk; cover versions have appeared everywhere from a space train cabaret in British TV staple Doctor Who to a promo for American Idol; in 2016 researchers at the University of Missouri even reported that it topped a study into songs most likely to have an uplifting effect on the listener (beating 'Good Vibrations' and 'Dancing Queen' to the top spot). However, it was - by Queen standards - a relatively minor hit on release, reaching number 9 in the UK charts and only number 86 in the USA. It was not included in the set list for the band's US tour of Jazz in autumn 1978 and remained in relative obscurity for the remainder of Mercury's career. It was not even performed in the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

In 2019 Billboard Magazine traced the song's route to ubiquity, beginning with the 2004 comedy zombie movie Shaun of the Dead, surely the funniest use of a Queen song in film aside, of course, from Wayne's World. When a zombie apocalypse has overwhelmed suburban London survivors take refuge, naturally enough, in their local pub, but their attempt at stealth is fatally undermined by the pub jukebox, which is mistakenly turned on and begins to blare out 'Don't Stop Me Now'. In a memorable scene, the group batter the zombified landlord with pool cues in time with the song whilst desperately trying to turn off the jukebox as a horde of zombies gather outside. The film's success introduced Queen's song to a new generation. Its visibility increased as 'Don't Stop Me Now' was performed by a range of artists in the years that followed: a faithful cover of the song by McFly reached Number 1 in the UK in 2006, Katy Perry performed it live in 2009, and it featured prominently in the US TV series Glee in 2013. The song's positivity, catchy melody, and versatile message allow it to fit a wide range of scenarios; as one DJ put it to Billboard, "It fits everything, from your baby learning how to walk to an 80-year-old running a marathon". 

When written, however, the song clearly referred to the hedonistic lifestyle that Freddie Mercury had begun to embrace by the late '70s: it was a paean to sex and drugs and rock and roll. In the video, Mercury sings the song - which of course includes lines such as "I'm a sex machine ready to reload" - whilst wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo for 'Mineshaft' (lot 202), a gay leather bar and sex club in Manhattan. Other members of the band were less certain that being "out of control" was something to celebrate: "I thought it was a lot of fun but, yes, I did have an undercurrent of feeling of are we talking about danger here because we were worried about Freddie at this point and I think that feeling lingers" (Brian May, interviewed in 2011, quoted in Somebody to Love, p.159).

The current drafts show Mercury crafting the song, beginning with an early draft including the title and fragmentary lyrics in which he compares himself to an "Electric shark" and "a pistol shot" as well as the familiar "shooting star". More complete drafts include discarded lines such as "I'm made of hot stuff", "Wanna send a supersonic message to you" (an alternative to "Wanna make a supersonic man out of you"), and "I'll do what I want whenever I want to". There is also an early version of the slower introductory verse. He continued to revise the song after he has written it into his notebook (lot 53) and one version of the song found here is a fair copy produced after the notebook version of the song. 

SPECIAL NOTICE

No right to reproduce or commercially exploit the copyright or other intellectual property

or image rights in any lot is included with the sale of the lot (including but not limited to

song lyrics, sketches, drawings and garment designs). Queen Productions Limited, Queen

Music Limited and other rights holders reserve all their rights.

No right to exhibit in public or reproduce this lot is included with the sale of this lot

without the prior written consent of Queen Productions Limited, who shall act in good faith

to consider any such requests.