Don McLean

For other people with similar names see Don MacLean.

Don McLean

Donald McLean (born October 2 1945 in New Rochelle, New York) is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for his 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".

Musical Roots

As a young teenager, McLean became interested in folk music particularly the Weavers' 1955 recording "Live at Carnegie Hall". By age 16 he had bought his first guitar (a Harmony acoustic archtop with a sunburst finish) and begun making contacts in the music business, becoming friends with folk singer Erik Darling, a member of the Weavers. McLean recorded his first studio sessions (with singer Lisa Kindred) while still in prep school.

McLean graduated from Iona Preparatory School in 1963, and briefly attended Villanova University, dropping out after four months. While at Villanova he became friends with singer/songwriter Jim Croce.

After leaving Villanova, Mclean became associated with famed folk music agent Harold Leventhal, and for the next six years performed at venues and events including the Bitter End and the Gaslight Cafe in New York, the Newport Folk Festival, the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., and the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Concurrently, McLean attended night school at Iona College and received a Bachelors degree in Business Administration in 1968.

In 1968, with the help of a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, McLean began reaching a wider public, with visits to towns up and down the Hudson River. He learned the art of performing from his friend and mentor Pete Seeger. McLean accompanied Seeger on his Clearwater boat trip up the Hudson River in 1969 to protest environmental pollution in the river. During this time McLean wrote songs that would appear on his first album, Tapestry.

Tapestry was released in 1970 on Capitol records to little notice outside the folk community. In late 1971, McLean's second album, American Pie, was released and became a major success, spawning two number one hits in the title song and "Vincent". American Pie's success made McLean an international star and renewed interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release.

McLean continued to tour and release albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s but never replicated the success of American Pie.

McLean had a series of conflicts with Saturday Night Live writer Andy Breckman, starting when Breckman opened for McLean on tour in 1980. Breckman and McLean have penned competing renditions of the origins of this feud, both of which are available online.

Songs

"American Pie"

Main article: American Pie

Don McLean's most famous composition, "American Pie", is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959. The song would popularize the expression "The Day the Music Died" in reference to this event. McLean has stated that the lyrics are also somewhat autobiographical and present an abstract story of his life from the mid-1950s until the time he wrote the song in the late 1960s.

"American Pie" reached number one on the US Billboard magazine charts for four weeks in 1971, and remains McLean's most successful single release. It is also the longest song to reach #1 with a running time of 8:36.

Nearly thirty years later, pop singer Madonna released a truncated dance-pop cover version of the song.

Other songs

McLean's other well-known songs include:

• "And I Love You So", covered by Elvis Presley, a 1973 hit for Perry Como
• "Vincent", a tribute to the 19th century Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh
• "Castles in the Air", which McLean recorded twice -- his 1981 re-recording was a top-40 hit
• "Wonderful Baby", a tribute to Fred Astaire that Astaire himself recorded
• "Superman's Ghost", a tribute to George Reeves, who portrayed Superman on television in the 1950s

The album American Pie features a version of Psalm 137, entitled "Babylon", and arranged by Don McLean and Lee Hays (of The Weavers). Boney M would have a number one hit in the UK with this song in 1978 under the title "Rivers of Babylon", although the two renditions are so different it is not immediately noticeable that they are versions of the same song.

In 1980, McLean had an international number one hit with a cover of the Roy Orbison classic, "Crying". Only following the record's success overseas was it released in the U.S., becoming a top 10 hit in 1981. Orbison himself once described McLean as "the voice of the century," and a subsequent re-recording of the song saw Orbison incorporate elements of McLean's version.

Another hit song associated with Don McLean (though never recorded by him) is "Killing Me Softly with His Song" which was written about McLean after Lori Lieberman, also a singer/songwriter, saw him singing his composition "Empty Chairs" in concert. Afterwards, Lieberman wrote a poem titled "Killing me softly with his blues" which became the basis for the song written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox and recorded by Roberta Flack (and later covered by The Fugees).

Later work

In 1991, Don McLean returned to the UK top 20 with a re-issue of "American Pie".

In 2004, Don McLean was inaugurated into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 2007, the biography The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs was published. Biographer Alan Howard conducted extensive interviews for this, the only book-length biography of the often reclusive McLean to date.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album
1970	Tapestry
1971	American Pie
1972	Don McLean
1973	Playin' Favorites
1974	Homeless Brother
1976	Solo (LIVE)
1977	Prime Time
1978	Chain Lightning
1981	Believers
1982	Dominion (LIVE)
1987	Love Tracks
1989	For the Memories Vols I & II
1989	And I Love You So (UK Release)
1990	Headroom
1991	Christmas
1995	The River of Love
1997	Christmas Dreams
2001	Sings Marty Robbins
2001	Starry Starry Night (LIVE)
2003	You've Got to Share: Songs for Children
2003	The Western Album
2004	Christmas Time!
2005	Rearview Mirror: An American Musical Journey

Compilations

Year	Album
1977	The Very Best of Don McLean
1993	Favorites and Rarities
2003	Legendary Songs of Don McLean
2008	American Pie & Other Hits

Rarities

Year	Title	Additional information
1982	"The Flight of Dragons"	This song was recorded for the film The Flight of Dragons in the early 1980s.

External links

• The Official Web Site of Don McLean and American Pie
• Allmusic Entry
• A video explanation of American Pie on YouTube