Songfacts®:

• "Don't Panic" is a reflective ballad about the end of the world. It's named after the phrase that appears on the front of the fictional guidebook The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the Douglas Adams science-fiction franchise of the same name. Chris Martin referenced The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy again in 2008 on Viva la Vida's "42."
• Coldplay performed this song at their first gig at The Laurel Tree in Camden, London, on January 16, 1998. It had a slightly different melody then, with this version eventually appearing on the band's second EP, The Blue Room.
• The Parachutes version of "Don't Panic" was recorded at Rockfield Studios, Wales, and Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, with British producer Ken Nelson. Speaking to Sound on Sound magazine, Nelson said it was one of his favorite songs on the album, adding: "This was a live take – acoustic guitar, vocal, drums, and bass. Johnny did two takes of overdubbed guitar and we used a little bit of one, a little bit of the other. And they have this little pump organ, they don't use it live, it's a two-and-a-half octave keyboard where you have to pump with your feet – Chris plays it, and he can sing at the same time. It's on quite a few of the tracks, though it's very subtle."
• Coldplay is said to have turned down an offer from the American clothing retailer GAP to use this song in a commercial. The band also refused to let The Coca-Cola Company use "Trouble" and Gatorade use "Yellow" around the same time. Discussing their aversion to commercials, Martin told The Irish Times in 2002 that if they took the money, they'd be "cheating the people who bought our records."
• This song is prominently featured in the cult film Garden State directed by and starring Zach Braff. Simon & Garfunkel, The Shins, and Zero 7 are among the other artists who appear on Garden State: The Soundtrack, which went on to win Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Pictures, Television, or Other Visual Media at the Grammy Awards in 2005. Speaking about compiling music for the movie, Braff explained to IGN: "Essentially, I made a mix CD with all of the music that I felt was scoring my life at the time I was writing the screenplay." He continued: "I'm just thankful that after I showed them the sequences in which their songs were used, the artists, or their estates were generous enough to work within our budgets."
• On July 19, 2011, "Don't Panic" was played as a wake-up call for Space Shuttle pilot Doug Hurley. The song was chosen by Hurley's loved ones to be played on Day 12 of the STS-135 mission – the final of the Space Shuttle missions ahead of the program's retirement later that month. Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" was previously played as a wake-up call on Day 2 of the STS-135 mission.
• The music video for "Don't Panic" was directed by British animator Tim Hope. It depicts Coldplay as two-dimensional paper cutouts undertaking household chores. Eventually, calamitous floods break out in their home and across their village, prompting the band to escape on a boat. The video later cuts to an animated version of the yellow globe featured on the cover of Parachutes.
• While they released it in Australia and across some European regions, Coldplay decided against releasing "Don't Panic" in the UK and US. The band felt their debut album, Parachutes, had earned enough acclaim and exposure in these countries through previous singles "Shiver," "Yellow," and "Trouble." Despite this, "Don't Panic" became the first non-commercial song to be placed on BBC Radio 1's A List and charted at #130 in the UK.