Of course, the album also included 'Vincent,' McLean's paean to Van Gogh, which has been played two-million times. There may not be much more to note about it, then, except perhaps that even without a crib sheet to identify who's who, the song can still be enjoyed for its engaging melody and singable chorus, which may have more to do with its success than anything else. 'American Pie' has remained as much a cultural touchstone as a song, sung by everyone from Garth Brooks to Madonna, its title borrowed for a pair of smutty teen comedies, while the record itself has earned a registered three-million plays on U.S. The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.Don McLean's second album, American Pie, which was his first to gain recognition after the negligible initial sales of 1970's Tapestry, is necessarily dominated by its title track, a lengthy, allegorical history of rock & roll, because it became an unlikely hit, topping the singles chart and putting the LP at number one as well. 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.

Songs in american pie 2