An eight-and-a-half-minute 1971 folk-rock song by Don McLean that obliquely recounts the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper.
Composition
American Pie was written by Don McLean and released in 1971. The lyrics use the phrase “the day the music died” to mark the February 1959 plane crash and offer a layered, allusive narrative of American popular music through the 1960s.
Reception
The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1972 and held the top position for four weeks despite its unusual length, which required splitting it across two sides of a 45.
Legacy
McLean’s original manuscript sold at auction in 2015 for over a million dollars. The song has been the subject of widespread interpretation, and in 2017 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.
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American Pie starts with A and ends with E. Browse other songs along the same letter.
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