‘Don’t Stop Me Now’—A Classic Revived

Last week, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox released its fourth single in October—a cover of “Don’t Stop Me Now,” originally performed by Queen in 1978. The YouTube band has consistently created brilliant jazzy-vintage renditions of classic and modern hits. “Don’t Stop Me Now,” featuring Melinda Doolittle, is no exception.

Postmodern Jukebox’s characteristic giddy energy is all over “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Doolittle’s rich, steady voice is a refreshing reminder of the heat and passion that Freddie Mercury himself blitzed on the stage. However, Queen’s original version packed a fiery intensity that Postmodern Jukebox’s rendition does not aim to imitate. Scott Bradlee has a jazzier zing in mind that Danny Janklow’s saxophone and Lemar Guillary’s trombone executes impeccably. Like most of PMJ’s recordings, this one also takes place in Bradlee’s living room. Bradlee accidentally cut himself out of the video this time. “I didn’t have a camera person that day,” he admits online. But what is absent in video is more than made up for in Bradlee’s piano, which dances with Doolittle’s voice gleefully throughout the song.

Midway in the song, Doolittle includes a bit of advice for the listeners that successfully captures the vitality of the music: “We all know life is too short for regrets so I don’t want fear to stop you from doing anything. I want you to go out and love somebody and live your life.”

Freddie Mercury would’ve been proud.