Don McLean

Don McLean

Any discussion of Don McLean usually begins with the legendary song, "American Pie'. This tour however celebrates 25 years of continued success for Don since "American Pie' first hit the UK charts in 1972 to today when his latest album, "The River of Love' is widely available and the music of Don McLean is just as popular as ever. In the liner notes to his latest album Don says that "The River of Love' is about his life today and judging by the general mood of hope and happiness prevailing through the album he has found much contentment with his wife Patrisha and two young children Jackie Lee and Wyatt. The album is a mixture of pop, country, and blues including 10 new songs all written by Don McLean and recorded with the superb string arrangements of Tony Migilore who accompanies Don on this the 25th Anniversary UK tour. "You're My Little Darlin'(which includes Chet Atkins on guitar), "The River of Love', and "Better Still' are songs surely destined for any future "Best of Don McLean' compilation.

The past 10 years have seen much success for Don McLean beginning with the release of the country-based "Love Tracks"; album in 1987 which 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'. Many of these new songs became available to UK audiences with the 1989 album release, "And I Love You So'. 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 and the recording of the Manchester concert for video release in 1993. A favorite memory for many will be Don performing "American Pie' live on "Top of the Pops' - not 1972 but 1991! In 1992, many previously unreleased songs became available on "Favorites and Rarities' while "Don McLean Classics' featured new versions of "Vincent' and "American Pie'. Following the 1993 sell-out UK tour, 1994 would see further success with Don appearing at the Buddy Holly tributes in the USA and in London; a Sheffield theatre group staging the musical "Till Tomorrow' which included 20 Don McLean songs; and the heavy rock band "Guns and Roses' taking 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 UK top-40, this time in "techno-music' form! November "95 and the release of "The River of Love' - still available and selling strongly and the appearance of the Don McLean World Wide Web Site on the Internet. 1996, "Killing Me Softly With His Song', a song about Don, is the UK's biggest selling single. And now in 1997 there is still much to come. Don has signed a record deal with Hip-o records (a division of MCA) that will see the re-release of many of Don's most famous albums. The re-releases will feature new artwork and previously unreleased material such as the studio-version of "Dream Lover'. February 1997 saw the first release: "Greatest Hits Live' previously released as "Dominion' and now featuring liner notes written by Don McLean in 1997. April 1997, "For The Memories Vols 1 and 2', an album of songs from the 30s, 40s, and 50s including the single, "If You Could Read My Mind' is released. June 1997, Don hopes to return to the studio to record a new album! October 1997, Don McLean's latest new album, "Christmas Dreams' is released by Hip-o records. 1998, and we hope to see the autobiography, "Don McLean: An American Troubadour' published.

Don's amazing popularity really began 25 years ago with the instant international success of "American Pie'. "American Pie' was recorded on 26 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 arguably the most famous rock and pop song of all time.

Finally, in November 1971, American Pie was issued as a double-sided single and charted within a month. Very quickly the attention from the media and public alike catapulted the single to #1 in the USA and Don to instant international superstardom. Every line of the song was analyzed 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 even today on the Internet! Don jokingly suggested that when he is old and poor he would open a pay-to-listen 0891 phone line on which he would tell all! Somehow that is not very likely because Don has always 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 18 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 of playing small-time gigs in New York's coffee houses (Don had become the resident singer at Cafe Lena in New York in 1964) immediately paid off with well-paced performances. Concert footage, together with video clips played to McLean songs formed the award winning 1972 film "Till Tomorrow' produced by Bob Elfstrom. Perhaps this film has been overlooked as the source of the first 'pop video'. It is currently being re-mastered for a much hoped for re-release.

With all this success, Don's first album, "Tapestry' recorded in 1969 and produced by Jerry Corbitt of "The Youngbloods' finally charted in the USA on 12 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 & ldquo;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 Favorites' 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 Favorites') is almost the quintessence of optimism, with a feeling of "Wow, I just woke up from a bad dream".

1973 was also great success for Don McLean the songwriter and Don McLean the performer. Perry Comm recorded "And I Love You So' from the "Tapestry' album and took it all the way to the UK top-5. Comma'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 Gambol and Charles Fox after Lori Leiberman had attended a McLean concert in LA. Lori's version, by the way, is by far the best recording of Killing Me Softly.

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 and unsuccessful period with Arista Records that yielded only 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'. After a short hiatus in the mid-80s Don re-emerged as the major force in popular music that he is today.

Jerry Corbitt best summed up Don McLean recently when he told me that "Don is one of the most important and perhaps the most introspective writer of our time. He has a deep and almost spooky understanding of the human heart and psyche. I treasure the work that I did with him as some of the most important that I have produced. I will always regret that a conflict in scheduling prevented my producing "American Pie' I had already signed and agreed to do an album with Charlie Daniels".