"The Day Music Died"

Original released on LP United Artists UAS-5535

(US, May 1971)

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. "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. radio stations. 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. Of course, the album also included "Vincent," McLean's paean to Van Gogh, which has been played two-million times. Nothing else on the album is as effective as the hits, but the other eight original songs range from sensitive fare like "Till Tomorrow" to the sarcastic, uptempo "Everybody Loves Me, Baby." "American Pie" - the album - is very much a record of its time; it is imbued with the vague depression of the early '70s that infected the population and found expression in the works of singer/songwriters. "American Pie" - the song - is really a criticism of what happened in popular music in the '60s, and "Vincent" sympathizes with Van Gogh's suicide as a sane comment on an insane world. "Crossroads" and "Empty Chairs" are personal reflections full of regret and despondency, with the love song "Winterwood" providing the only respite. In the album's second half, the songs get more portentous, tracing society's ills into war and spiritual troubles in "The Grave" and "Sister Fatima." The songs are made all the more poignant by the stately folk-pop arrangements and McLean's clear, direct tenor. It was that voice, equally effective on remakes of pop oldies, that was his salvation when he proved unable to match the songwriting standard set on "Tapestry" and this collection. But then, the album has an overall elegiac quality that makes it sound like a final statement. After all, if the music has died, what else is there to say?

DON McLEAN: The Third Album

Original released on LP United Artists UAS-5651

(US, November 1972)

When Don McLean was recording his second album, "American Pie", in 1971, he was a little-known singer/songwriter whose first album, "Tapestry", had had little commercial impact. Only a year later, when he came to make his third LP, "Don McLean", he was attempting to follow up a chart-topping album that had spawned two chart-topping hits, "American Pie" and "Vincent" (the latter going to number one in the U.K. and the Top 20 in the U.S.). Yet he remained the same artist he had been before the epic "American Pie" created a sensation with its long allegorical verses and catchy chorus. His worldview continued to reflect a '60s hangover, in which disappointment and failure had replaced hope and struggle. That view had been expressed in "American Pie" and "Vincent," as well as on the rest of "American Pie" and "Tapestry", and it continued on "Don McLean", which began with the rocker "Dreidel," a harsh description of life that included lines such as «No trust in tomorrow, it's a lie» and «I'm watchin' the future it's black.» This was followed by the country-styled "Bronco Bill's Lament," sung in the voice of a Hollywood cowboy who considers his career a sham, another metaphor of loss and betrayal. And so it went. McLean did lighten the gloom with humor by covering the 1920s novelty song "On the Amazon" from the British musical Mr. Cinders, its nonsense lyrics employing multisyllabic words as if they were the names of animals («On the Amazon the prophylactics prowl/On the Amazon the hypodermics howl»). And he offered hope in his love songs, notably "If We Try." That lovely ballad was released as the second single and became a minor chart entry. Had "If We Try" been the first single instead of "Dreidel" (which just missed the Top 20), the album might have been much more successful. (Beyond the song's odd musical structure and pessimistic lyrics, most people didn't know what a dreidel was. It's a Jewish children's toy.) As it was, Don McLean was rated an artistic and commercial disappointment as a follow-up to "American Pie". (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

DON McLEAN Debut Album

Original released on LP Mediarts 41-4

(US, April 1970)

It took the success of Don McLean's second album, "American Pie", to stimulate interest in his debut record, "Tapestry". But once the new fans looked, they found that the album contained the same high level of pop-folk songwriting, if in a somewhat less epic form. "Castles in the Air" became a hit, and the album also contained McLean's version of his song "And I Love You So," which Perry Como successfully covered in 1973. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)