American Pie is a nearly nine-minute long pop song by singer-songwriter Don McLean, about "the day the music died". Recorded in 1971 and released that year on the album of the same name, it was a #1 US hit in 1972. It is an allusive history of rock and roll, inspired by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959. The song was named after the plane that Holly, Valens, and Richardson died in.
None of these are identified by name. Later performers are also alluded to with easily decoded identifications, leading to much discussion, encouraged by McLean's canny lifelong refusal to explain the lyrics. (Asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean once commented "It means I never have to work again.") It alternates in style between folk ballad and rock, but overall it is a rock and roll anthem. Some music scholars say the lyrics are a satirical reference to nuclear war.
The song remains popular, with nightly manglings in karaoke sessions and drunken singalongs even among people not yet born when it was originally recorded. Along with "Stairway to Heaven", it is a standard choice for disk jockeys who have to take a bathroom or other break when they are working alone.
American Pie is also a popular "last song" for radio stations that are changing format from music to news-talk or sports, because of the line "the day the music died".
In 1999, parodist Weird Al Yankovic did a Star Wars-inspired parody of "American Pie" entitled "The Saga Begins" in which the lyrics recount the whole plot of Star Wars Episode I. In 2000, Madonna also did a space-age sounding cover of "American Pie" for a movie.
External Links
- The Annotated "American Pie", maintained by Rich Kulawiec
- Brendan's American Pie Archive