Don McLean

About

Also known as: Don MacLean, Don Mc Lean, Don McClean, Donald McLean, McLean, Don

Few songs have lodged themselves in the cultural memory quite like "American Pie". Don McLean's eight and a half minute folk rock epic, inspired by the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, spent decades as the longest song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, and by 2018 BMI had certified it at five million airplays. McLean has described the lyrics as partly autobiographical, mapping his own life across the shifts in American youth culture from the 1950s through the 1960s, and the song still sparks debate among historians, literature professors and fans who keep hunting for a definitive meaning. Beyond that one towering track, McLean built a catalogue that other artists keep returning to. Elvis Presley, Perry Como and Glen Campbell all recorded "And I Love You So", and Madonna scored a global hit with her cover of "American Pie" in 2000. His tribute to Vincent van Gogh, simply called "Vincent", racked up three million certified airplays. McLean works mostly in folk rock but has moved comfortably through country, easy listening and pop over the years, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.