AMERICAN PIE
It is 50 years ago this month that Don Mclean released his classic LP American Pie. Here are some facts and figures about the iconic song.
American Pie was released in October 1971 and topped the Billboard charts for four weeks. In the UK, it peaked at No2. When Madonna covered the song in 2000, it reached No1 in the UK.
At eight minutes and 42 seconds, it is the fourth longest song on the Billboard Hot 100 (it was the longest at the time of release) and the longest chart topper.
Due to its length, when the song was released it was put out on two sides as a seven-inch single.
Mclean performed American Pie for the first time in public on March 14, 1971, at Temple University in Philadelphia when he was the support act for Laura Nyro.
The Recording Industry Association of America listed it as the fifth best of the 20th Century.
The lyric “the day the music died” refers to the February 3, 1959, aeroplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.
For years, Mclean refused to explain the lyrics but on April 7, 2015, he sold the 16 pages of notes he made at the time for £806,000 at Christie’s in New York, to an anonymous bidder. He revealed that “the king” referred to Elvis Presley, “the jester” was Bob Dylan, and also referenced the murder of Meredith Hunter by Hells Angels at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont, California, in December 1969.
Previously when asked what American Pie meant, Mclean said: “It means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”
The song still earns Mclean around half a million dollars every year in royalties.
A levy or levee in the song is a pier or quay. But some believe Mclean was referring to The Levy, a bar in his home town of New Rochelle, New York.
Mclean said of the song: “I wanted to capture, probably before it was ever formulated, a rock and roll American dream.”
Universal, makers of the American Pie sex comedy film franchise first released in 1999, had to pay Mclean a large fee to use the words American Pie in the titles.
In 2017, Bob Dylan was asked about being mentioned in the song. He appeared to take offence and replied: “A jester? Sure, the jester writes songs like Masters Of War, A Hard Rain’s A-gonna Fall, It’s Alright, Ma – some jester. I have to think he’s talking about somebody else. Ask him.”