

The event, which McLean dubbed “the day the music died”, shattered the pop world of its day and had a formative effect on the songwriter. In addition, it offers an emotional account of the tragic event that McLean used as his jumping off point for the larger story he wanted to tell. “This film was a concerted effort to raise the curtain.” “I told Don, ‘It’s time for you to reveal what 50 years of journalists have wanted to know,’” Proffer said. By contrast, the new documentary offers the first line-by-line deconstruction of the song’s lyrics, as well as the most detailed analysis to date of its musical evolution.

Throughout the years, journalists have subjected the song to a Talmudic level of scrutiny, while its songwriter, Don McLean, has doled out dribs and drabs of insight into his intent. Over the years, it has been interpreted by artists from Madonna (who created a commercially triumphant, if aesthetically limp, take in 2000) to Garth Brooks to Jon Bon Jovi to John Mayer.

The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.In fact, American Pie has only gained in fans and expanded in meaning as it has hit successive generations and generated fresh covers. In 2017, McLean's original recording was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant". However, the overall theme of the song is the loss of innocence of the early rock and roll generation as symbolized by the plane crash that claimed the lives of three of its heroes. (The crash was not known by that name until after McLean's song became a hit.) The meaning of the other lyrics has long been debated, and for decades, McLean declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned. The repeatedly mentioned phrase "the day the music died" refers to the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll performers Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. McLean's combined version is the fourth longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (at the time of release it was the longest), in addition to being the longest song to reach number one.

1 in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. A truncated version of the song was covered by Madonna in 2000 and reached No. 5 song on the RIAA project Songs of the Century. In the UK, the single reached number 2, where it stayed for 3 weeks, on its original 1971 release while a reissue in 1991 reached No. Recorded and released on the American Pie album in 1971, the single was the number-one US hit for four weeks in 1972 and also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. "American Pie" is a song by American singer and songwriter Don McLean.
