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About Don McLean
Don McLean was born on October 2nd
1945 in New Rochelle, NY to Elizabeth and Donald McLean. By the
age of five he had developed an interest in all forms of music and
would spend hours listening to the radio and his father’s 78rpm
records. Childhood asthma meant that Don missed long periods of
school and while he slipped back in his studies, his love of music
was allowed to flourish. He would often perform shows for family
and friends.
 As a
teenager, he purchased his first guitar (a Harmony F Hole with a
sunburst finish) from the House of Music in New Rochelle and took
opera lessons paid for by his sister. These lessons combined with
many hours in the swimming pool, helped Don to develop breath
control, which would later allow him to sing long, continuous
phrases, in songs such as “Crying”, without taking a breath. The
exercise also meant his asthma got better.
In 1961, Don took his one and only vacation
with his father – a trip to Washington D.C. Sadly, a few months
later his father died. Don was just 15 years old.
By this time, Don's musical focus was very much on folk thanks,
in part, to The Weavers landmark 1955 recording "Live at Carnegie
Hall". Don was determined to become a professional musician and
singer and, as a 16 year old, he was already making contacts in
the business. After managing to get his home number from the
telephone directory, Don phoned Erik Darling. They become friends
and Don visited his apartment in New York frequently.
Through Erik Darling, Don recorded his first studio sessions
with Lisa Kindred and was invited to join a group with Darling and
the other members of the Rooftop Singers. However, even at that
time, Don saw himself as a troubadour and turned down the offer.
While at Villanova University in 1963 (he stayed for just four
months), Don met and became friends with Jim Croce and President
Kennedy was assassinated.
After leaving Villanova, Don worked for
“Harold Leventhal Management”. This started a six year period
during which time Don performed at venues like the Bitter End and
Gaslight Café in New York, the Newport Folk Festival, the Cellar
Door in Washington, D.C., the Main Point in Philadelphia, the
Troubadour and Ash Grove in Los Angeles and over forty colleges
throughout New York and New England. He appeared with such artists
as Herbie Mann, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Melanie,
Steppenwolf, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Josh White, Ten
Wheel Drive and others. This was the start of Don McLean’s career
as a professional singer, songwriter, musician and performer.
Don also found time to attend night school at Iona College and,
in 1968, graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business
Administration but turned down a prestigious scholarship to
Columbia University Graduate School in favour of becoming resident
singer at Café Lena in NY.
While resident at Cafe Lena, the New York State Council for the
Arts invited Don to become their Hudson River Troubadour. He
accepted and spent the summer travelling from town to town in the
Hudson Valley, giving talks about the environment and singing
songs for whoever would turn up to listen.
A year later, Don was a member of the first crew of the Sloop
Clearwater. With Pete Seeger, they travelled the Atlantic seaboard
giving concerts at each port and featuring in the news wherever
they went.
 In
1969, Don also recorded his first album, “Tapestry”, in Berkeley,
CA. The student riots were going on outside the studio door as Don
was singing “And I Love You So” inside. The album was first
released by Mediarts and attracted good reviews and achieved
modest commercial success.
The transition to major international stardom began in 1971
with the release of "American Pie”. "American Pie” was recorded on
26th May 1971 and a month later received its first
radio airplay on New York's WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the
closing of The Fillmore East, the famous New York concert hall.
However Don's first live public performance of the song had
received an indifferent reaction from the audience. He had
excitedly got some pretty young girl to come up on stage to hold
the (many) pages of lyrics for him. He sang the song and the
audience was stunned into silence! Little did they know that they
had just heard the song that was to become one of the most famous
songs of all time.
Thirty years later, “American Pie” was voted number 5 in a poll
of the 365 “Songs of the Century” compiled by the Recording
Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the
Arts.
The top five were:
"Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland
"White Christmas" by Bing Crosby
"This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie
"Respect" by Aretha Franklin;
and "American Pie" by Don McLean.
 “American
Pie” was issued as a double A-side single in November 1971 and
charted within a month. Very quickly, the attention from media and
public alike catapulted the single to #1 in the USA and Don to
instant international superstardom. Every line of the song was
analysed time and time again to find the real meaning. Don has
always refused to sanction any of the many interpretations, so
adding to its mystery. The great “American Pie debate” continues
today on the Internet. Don once suggested that when he is old and
poor he would open a pay-to-listen phone line on which he would
tell all! Somehow, that is unlikely because Don has maintained the
publishing rights to his songs. "So when people ask me what
"American Pie" means, I tell them it means I don't ever have to
work again if I don't want to."
The second single, "Vincent”, charted on 18th March
1972 going on to reach US#12, UK#1. The "American Pie” album
remained at #1 in the UK for 7 weeks in 1972, and in the UK charts
for 53 consecutive weeks.
In the wake of “American Pie”, Don became a major concert
attraction and was able to call upon material not only from his
two albums but from a tremendous repertoire of old concert hall
numbers and the complete catalogues of singers such as Buddy
Holly, and another McLean influence, Frank Sinatra. The years
spent playing gigs in small clubs and coffee houses paid off with
well-paced performances. Don's first concert at the Albert Hall in
1972 was a triumphant success.
Concert footage, and other with video clips, played to McLean
songs formed the award winning 1972 film "Till Tomorrow” produced
by Bob Elfstrom (a project they had started working on in 1968).
With all this success, "Tapestry” was reissued by United
Artists and charted in the USA on 12th February 1972
reaching #111 and the top-15 in the United Kingdom; it includes
two of Don's most famous songs: "And I Love You So” and "Castles
in the Air”.
Don's third album, simply entitled "Don McLean”, included the
song "The Pride Parade” that provides an insight into Don's
immediate reaction to his instant superstardom. Don told "Melody
Maker” magazine in 1973 that “Tapestry” was an album by someone
previously concerned with external situations. “American Pie”
combines externals with internals and the resultant success of
that album makes the third one ("Don McLean”) entirely
introspective”.
The fourth album, "Playin Favourites” became a top-40 hit in
the UK in 1973 and included the classic, "Mountains of Mourne” and
Buddy Holly's "Everyday”, a live rendition of which returned Don
to the UK singles chart. McLean said, “The last album ("Don
McLean”) was a study in depression whereas the new one ("Playin
Favourites”) is almost the quintessence of optimism, with a
feeling of "Wow, I just woke up from a bad dream".
1973 was also a great success for Don McLean the songwriter and
Don McLean the performer. Perry Como recorded "And I Love You So”
from the "Tapestry” album and took it to the UK top-5 and American
top-30. Como's version was nominated for a Grammy but was beaten
by a song about Don, "Killing Me Softly With His Song”, sung by
Roberta Flack and written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox after
Lori Leiberman had attended a McLean concert at the LA Troubadour.
 Throughout
the 1970s, Don McLean remained an in-demand concert performer. In
1975, 85000 fans attended his London Hyde Park concert. 1977, saw
a brief liaison with Arista Records that yielded the "Prime Time”
album before, in 1978, Don's career began again in Nashville where
he would work with Elvis Presley's backing singers, "The
Jordanaires” and many of Elvis's old musicians. The result was
"Chain Lightning” and the UK No 1, "Crying”. The early 1980s saw
further chart successes with "Since I Don't Have You”, a new
recording of "Castles in the Air” and "It's Just the Sun”.
Some people are amazed when they read how successful, “American
Pie Man”, Don McLean has been. Far from fading away (like some of
his 1970s singer-songwriter contemporaries), Don has remained very
much in the upper echelons of popular music.
In 1987, the release of the country-based "Love Tracks" album
gave rise to the hit singles "Love in My Heart” (top-10 in
Australia), "Can't Blame the Wreck on the Train” (US country #49)
and "Eventually”.
Two years later, Don hit the UK top-10 with "American Pie”
prompting many appearances on radio and TV including a one-hour
special with Nicky Campbell on BBC radio 1 (available in RealAudio
on this site), and the recording of the Manchester concert for
video release in 1993. A favourite memory for many fans is Don
performing "American Pie” live on "Top of the Pops” in 1991.
In 1992, many previously unreleased songs became available on "Favorites
and Rarities” while "Don McLean Classics” featured new studio
recordings of "Vincent” and "American Pie”. In 1994, Don appeared
at the Buddy Holly tributes in the USA and London, and "Guns and
Roses” took a replica of Don's version of "Since I Don't Have You”
(a US top-20 hit for Don in April 1981) to the UK top-10. 1995 and
"American Pie' returns to the top-40; this time in "techno-music”
format performed by European artist, Just Luis.
In 1996, "Killing Me Softly With His Song"', performed by The
Fugees, was one of the biggest selling singles of the year.
 Don
McLean credits his 1997 performance of “American Pie” at Garth
Brooks’ Central Park concert (attended by over 500,000 people) as
the beginning of his third career comeback. According to Don, his
first "comeback" had been the release of "Vincent" and the second,
the release and massive success of "Crying".
"Brooks was joined on stage
by two surprise guest stars, Billy Joel and Don McLean, who brought
down the house with an acoustic rendition of "American Pie." (CNN, 1997)
Two years later Garth Brooks repaid the favour by appearing as
a special guest (with Nanci Griffith) on Don's first ever American
TV special, broadcast on PBS and now available as the “Starry Starry Night” video, DVD and CD.
A month later, Don McLean wound up the 20th century by performing
"American Pie" for President Clinton at the Lincoln Memorial Gala
In Washington D.C.
In 2000, Madonna recorded a cover version of
"American Pie" that upon release in the UK entered the official
singles chart at number 1 and made the US top-30 on air play
points alone. This prompted EMI to release a new "Best of Don
McLean" CD that gave Don his first top-30 album chart entry in
almost 20 years.
 "Madonna
is a colossus in the music industry and she is going to be
considered an important historical figure as well. She is a fine
singer, a fine songwriter and record
producer, and she has the power to guarantee success with any song
she chooses to record. It is a gift for her to have recorded
'American Pie.' I have heard her version and I think it is sensual
and mystical. I also feel that she's chosen autobiographical
verses that reflect her career and personal history. I hope it
will cause people to ask what's happening to music in America. I
have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I
have ever received a gift from a goddess."
Don McLean, 2000.
Even more surprising than Madonna having a hit
with a Don McLean song, was George Michael's decision in 2003 to
record "The Grave", from the "American Pie" album, as a protest
against the Iraq war. He recorded the song for MTV and performed
it live on Top of the Pops.
I am proud of George Michael for standing up for life and
sanity. I am delighted that he chose a song of mine to express
these feelings. We must remember that the Wizard is really a
cowardly old man hiding behind a curtain with a loud microphone.
It takes courage and a song to pull the curtain open and expose
him.
Good Luck George-
Don McLean
The 21st Century has seen a number of new honours
for Don McLean and his music. Iona College conferred an honorary
doctorate on Don in 2001 and, in February 2002, "American Pie" was
finally inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This year sees
Don McLean inaugurated into the National Academy of Popular
Music Songwriters' Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will take place on June 10th, 2004 in New
York City and Don McLean says "this is wonderful, and unexpected
validation for an old lone wolf like me. I am deeply moved."
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