Queen's Don't Stop Me Now Was A Modest Hit In 1979 — 25 Years Later, A Zombie Movie Made It A Smash

Queen's music has many uses. It's great for driving, stellar for having on while getting ready to go out in the evening, and a reliable compromise choice if no one can agree on a vibe. But above all, Queen is "get it done" music. Tracks like "We Will Rock You," "We Are the Champions," and especially "Don't Stop Me Know" have been playing while countless people have hammered away on laptops, finally sent a text they were dreading, or taken a few cleansing breaths before cleaning out the appalling substance in the bottom of the fridge.

"Don't Stop Me Now," a jewel in any productivity playlist, didn't start out as a success. Its initial chart position was, if not truly a flop, piddling for the airplay juggernaut Queen was in the late '70s. Fortunately for everyone who's ever been on deadline, though, "Shaun of the Dead," a popular indie horror-comedy, breathed fresh life into the song in the mid-'00s.

Today, everyone loves "Don't Stop Me Now," but that wasn't the case when the song first came out. It clocked in at a ho-hum No. 86 on the Billboard Hot 100. (For comparison's sake, the preceding "Fat Bottomed Girls" topped out at No. 24.) Queen never played the song live in the United States during Freddie Mercury's lifetime — not even during the tour promoting the album it was on. Mercury's bandmates, who had become anxious about their frontman's hedonism, balked a bit at the perceived "do whatever you want as long as it's fun and big and loud" vibe of the song, which Queen guitarist Brian May saw as encouraging Mercury's love of vice. 

But this cool initial reception couldn't stop "Don't Stop Me Now." The anthem to going big instead of going home came back from the grave thanks to its inclusion in 2004's goofy, gory "Shaun of the Dead." Since then, it's claimed a place as one of Queen's best-loved and most-played songs, with millions upon millions of streams and downloads annually, inspired by the message that if a group of English goofballs can kill a zombie to this song, it can help you too. 

"Don't Stop Me Now" got its second life, pun intended, as the soundtrack to a fight scene in the Simon Pegg comedy-horror "Shaun of the Dead." A handful of survivors are besieged in a barricaded pub by the undead when a zombie makes his way in. The jukebox cuts on in the iffily-wired bar, and our heroes arm themselves with pool cues, fire extinguishers, darts, and other bar paraphernalia to head off the threat. It takes about four of them to neutralize one slow, elderly zombie, and it's one of the film's best scenes. Fortunately for the low-budget film, Queen traditionally offers affordable licensing fees for its work (which is why you hear it so often in movies, TV, and ads), so the indie flick could afford the gimmick.

As delicious as the finished product is, disco fans can grieve a missed opportunity. The runner-up soundtrack for the scene was Boney M.'s "Rasputin," a minor treasure about a Russian mystic by a West German discopop group. The cast even practiced choreography for "Rasputin" in case the Queen track was too pricey.