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Archived Concert Performances

All recordings here require the free Real Media player to listen/watch.

Hyde Park, London

Don McLean's free concert with an audience of 80,000. This is one of the great moments of Don McLean's career.

Title   Hits
Vincent (Starry Starry Night) Two songs here. Can you name the song that leads into Vincent? 63949
Homeless Brother 15194

Orchard Theatre, Dartford, England

Don McLean accompanied by Tony Migliore on keyboards and grand piano. Good sound quality with some minor interference.

Title   Hits
Vincent 35136
American Pie 34835
Love in my Heart 7678
And I Love You So 12359
The Very Thought of You 7402
Headroom 6260
La La Love You 6726
Can't Blame the Wreck on the Train 6748
What Will The World Be Like 6496
Winterwood 7631
It's Just the Sun 7081

Royal Albert Hall, London

Some fans consider Don McLean's concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1973 to be his greatest ever. Here you can listen to a few songs from that show and remember the Don McLean 'solo' concert experience. This page requires the latest version of the free Real Player. None of the material has been released on record or CD.

Title   Hits
Winterwood 7433
Mountains of Mourne Beautiful version, but listen for Don's mistake. 10644
Great Big Man & Respectable Two songs joined together here. 6948
Babylon Don McLean is joined by an audience of 5000 in this version of the song originally released on the American Pie album. 10588
American Pie 19870

Live In Ireland

The 'Live in Ireland' CD was recorded in the 1980s but has never been released. The track listing is: 1. Tulsa Time 5:20.
2. Everyday 2:11
3. Winterwood 3:28
4. Dreidel 5:27
5. Mountains of Mourne 5:03
6. And I Love You So 4:59
7. Molly Malone 2:52. 8. American Pie 8:43
9. Johnny MacAldoo 1:52
10. Pat Works Upon the Railway 3:37
11. This Little Light of Mine 5:22
The album was remastered on 17 September 1997 at Chelsea Recording Studios, Nashville. It is hoped that the CD will appear as part of a Don McLean box set at some point in the future. We are very grateful to Don McLean for allowing us to broadcast portions of this CD. Three songs currently available, but we will add one or two more.

Title   Hits
This Little Light of Mine 7593
Molly Malone 7891
Pat Works Upon the Railway 6135

Live in New York City

This is a fine concert performance recorded in New York City in 1982 featuring band and the Jordanaires.

Title   Hits
Vincent (Starry Starry Night) The song Don wrote after readin a book about Vincent Van Gogh 175805
Tapestry The song that inspired the creation of Greenpeace 8344
Castles in the Air In the style of the Believers album version 10042
Jerusalem Concert version of the Believers album track 6518
Orphans of Wealth Great version of this song from Don's first album 6380
Building my Body / Wonderful Baby Two songs 5920

Royal Festival Hall, London

The Royal Festival Hall in London England is one of Don McLean's most favourite venues. This recording features Don McLean with rock band. The sound quality is moderate. True rarities include Don's version of 'Blue Suede Shoes' and the singalong 'The People are Scratching'. Sound Only.

Title   Hits
Blue Suede Shoes Don McLean's version of the Elvis Presley classic. Exceptionally rare performance - this version is previously unreleased. 7881
American Pie 19673
Jerusalem 6004
Crying in the Chapel 6408
Vincent (Starry Starry Night) 10832
And I Love You So Classic performance 9166
The People are Scratching A classic Don McLean sing-along. Also features Don McLean chatting about President Reagan. 7272
Genesis (In the Beginning) 6686
Homeless Brother 6043
Left for Dead on the Road of Love 5856
La La Love You 5818
If We Try 6511
Winterwood 8877
It's Just the Sun 6724

Recorded music submitted by Don McLean fans

This section contains files that fans have provided. Over time we hope to build up a collection of streaming audio of fans playing some of their favourite Don McLean songs. You can upload your own efforts by selecting 'Upoload' from the menu and following the simple instructions.

Title   Hits
Interview with Don McLean - 1972 This isn't a sound file but a PDF of an excellent interview with Don McLean in a 1972 edition of Guitar Player magazine. 3773
Mountains Of Mourne mp3 4097
Interview with Don McLean - 1980 This isn't a sound file but a PDF of an excellent interview with Don McLean in a 1980 edition of Guitar magazine. 3851
Empty Chairs mp3 4326
Castles in the Air mp3 4526
Vincent (Starry Starry Night) Vincent by Ryan Heenan 13190
American Pie (A cappella:-) This is my A cappella tribute to one of the greatest songwriters ever. 9461
American pie Very short version. 11022
Every Day Is A Miracle Only the die hard fans are familiar with this one! 4673
Castles In The Air A great Don song.. 6180
And I Love You So 7314
Vincent It is quite a nice song that I tried 3 months to learn it. My guitar with capo on the 1st fret sounds good. hah My email address:sunie2001@hotmail.com I am a Chinese, willing to make friends oversea who likes Mclean 10572
American Pie I'm 18 and this my first attempt at a real recording. This is my rendition of American Pie. It's a rather over the top rendition and I go as high as Michael Jakson at some points. This is a very unique rendition and I hope everyone enjoys it! 14329
If We Try I play it for thirty years already and it's so beautiful and so hard to get it really good. But if I try - and keep trying... Hope you like it. 6323
Winter Has Me In Its Grip Fine song, nice guitarchords and beautiful melody. But again, not easy to perform! Hope you still like my effort. (No I'm not from Spain, I'm from Holland) 4735
Castles in the Air I'm probably the only non-guitarist in here so it was a real challenge to come up with a decent version of this song. I used Cubase SX3 and Virtual Guitarist to record this most beautiful song. I hope you all like my interpretation. Thanks. 7178
Bronco Bill's Lament I always used to like this song. 5790
Vincent I really love the song, that's y I recorded it. Hope u'll like it, too. 11875
Georgie's Song This is obviously not a Don McLean song, it's mine! Uploaded with permission and some pressure! Written for my daughter, Georgina, every father should be able to identify with this.......I hope. 8873
And I Love You So Don makes it sound easy, but I found this song really hard to sing! Where's everyone gone? Have you all jumped ship and not told me? Is it me?? Hello?? 12724
Vincent Hi Dejay, Cookie and Jim, mind if I join you? 23304
Empty Chairs by Dejay Empty Chairs by Dejay 9982
Orphans Of Wealth by Cookie Orphans Of Wealth by Cookie 7480
Birthday Song - test by Jim Monaghan I''m trying to see how/if this works. Not all the chords are correct...I''ll upload a better version later. Eventually, we''ll be able to do "Don McLean guitar lessons" on here. OK...the good news...I figured out how to do this. The bad news...I need better recording equipment @ home to pull this off right! 10165
Circus song Circus Song by Dejay 7794
Oh My What A Shame Oh My What A Shame by Cookie 7905
Magdalene Lane Magdalene Lane by Cookie 7898
Homeless brother Homeless brother by Dejay 7963
Castles in the air Castles in the air 12582

Hard Rock Cafe, Manchester

Recorded in the 1970s at the Hard Rock Cafe, Manchester, UK, listen here to some classic tracks sung 'solo'. Very grateful to Brian Catchpole for supplying these tracks.

Title   Hits
Bronco Bill's Lament Live in Concert 6382
Wonderful Baby From the Homeless Brother album. 6293
Respectable From the Tapestry album. 5676
Birthday Song From the 1972 Don McLean album. 7189

Rarities

Various rare concert performances and studio recordings.

Title   Hits
Well Alright iN CONCERT 1984 6211
East Virginia Blues In concert 1984 5755
The Bells of Rhymney In concert in 1984. 5814
L'Affaire D'Amour Performed here in concert in 1984, this song is also a hard to find Don McLean studio recording. 6967
The Cat Came Back Recorded in concert in the UK in the 1980s. This children's song also features on Don's new album 'You've Got to Share' available from http://www.don-mclean.com/info.htm 6735
Flight of Dragons Don McLean recorded this song for the film 'Flight of Dragons' in the early 1980s. 9644
Don McLean 'Till Tomorrow' video, 1971 Here is a little snippet from the rare 'Till Tomorrow' video. It shows the infamous bomb scare that Martin Maguire describes on his Belfast page: "During the song one of the theatre staff walks onstage, says something to Don and then takes the mike to ask the audience to check around them and under their seats for suspicious packages (ie a bomb scare). The audience seem bemused by it all, whilst the guy on stage insists that it is serious and not a joke. Minutes later, Don returns, continues the song from where he left off and receives rapturous applause." 7826


American Pie For the Memoris River of Love Solo
 
 
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Did you know?

American Pie was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.