Don McLean drew inspiration for the song from his childhood experience delivering newspapers during the time of
the plane crash that killed early
rock and roll musicians
Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens, and
The Big Bopper: McLean reportedly wrote "American Pie" in
Saratoga Springs, New York, at Caffè Lena, but a 2011
New York Times article quotes McLean as disputing this claim. Some employees at Caffè Lena claim that he started writing the song there, and then continued to write the song in both
Cold Spring, New York, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McLean insists that the song made its debut in Philadelphia at
Temple University The song was produced by Ed Freeman and recorded with a few session musicians. Freeman did not want McLean to play rhythm guitar on the song but eventually relented. McLean and the session musicians rehearsed for two weeks but failed to get the song right. At the last minute, the pianist
Paul Griffin was added, which is when the tune came together. The song debuted on the album
American Pie in October 1971 and was released as a single in November. The song's eight-and-a-half-minute length meant that it could not fit entirely on one side of the
45 RPM record, so United Artists had the first taking up the A-side of the record and the final the B-side. Radio stations initially played the A-side of the song only, but soon switched to the full album version to satisfy their audiences. Upon the single release,
Cash Box called it "folk-rock's most ambitious and successful epic endeavor since '
Alice's Restaurant.
Record World called it a "monumental accomplishment of lyric writing".
Interpretations The song has nostalgic themes, stretching from the late 1950s until late 1969 or 1970. Except to acknowledge that he first learned about
Buddy Holly's death on February 3, 1959 – McLean was age 13 – when he was folding newspapers for his paper route on the morning of February 4, 1959 (hence the line "February made me shiver/with every paper I'd deliver"), McLean has generally avoided responding to direct questions about the song's lyrics; he has said: "They're beyond analysis. They're poetry." He also stated in an editorial published in 2009, on the 50th anniversary of the
crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson (all of whom are alluded to in the final verse in a comparison with the Christian
Holy Trinity), that writing the first verse of the song exorcised his long-running grief over Holly's death and that he considers the song to be "a big song... that summed up the world known as America". McLean dedicated the
American Pie album to Holly. Some commentators have identified the song as outlining the darkening of cultural mood, as over time the cultural vanguard passed from
Pete Seeger and
Joan Baez (the "King and Queen" of folk music), then from
Elvis Presley (known as "the King" of Rock and Roll), to
Bob Dylan ("the Jester" – who wore a jacket similar to that worn by
cultural icon James Dean, was known as "the voice of his generation" ("a voice that came from you and me"), and whose
motorcycle accident ("in a cast") left him in reclusion for many years, recording in studios rather than touring ("on the sidelines")), to
the Beatles (
John Lennon, punned with
Vladimir Lenin, and "the Quartet" – although McLean has stated the Quartet is a reference to other people), to
the Byrds (who wrote one of the first
psychedelic rock songs, "
Eight Miles High", and then "fell fast" – the song was banned, band member
Gene Clark entered
rehabilitation, known colloquially as a "fallout shelter", and shortly after, the group declined as it lost members, changed genres, and alienated fans), to
the Rolling Stones (who released
Their Satanic Majesties Request and the singles "
Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "
Sympathy for the Devil" ("Jack Flash", "Satan", "The Devil"), and used the
Hells Angels – "Angels born in Hell" – as
Altamont event security, with
fatal consequences, bringing the 1960s to a violent end), and to
Janis Joplin (the "girl who sang the blues" but just "turned away" – she died of a
heroin overdose the following year). It has also been speculated that the song contains numerous references to post-
World War II American political events, such as the
assassination of John F. Kennedy (known casually as "Jack"), First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy ("his widowed bride"), and subsequent killing of
his assassin (whose courtroom trial obviously ended as a result ["adjourned"]), the
Cuban Missile Crisis ("Jack be nimble, Jack be quick"), the
murders of civil rights workers James Chaney,
Andrew Goodman, and
Michael Schwerner, and elements of culture such as
sock hops ("kicking off shoes" to dance, preventing damage to the varnished floor),
cruising with a
pickup truck, the rise of the political protest song ("a voice that came from you and me"),
drugs and the counterculture, the
Manson Family and the
Tate–LaBianca murders in the "summer swelter" of 1969 (the Beatles' song "
Helter Skelter") and much more. Many additional and alternative interpretations have also been proposed. For example, Bob Dylan's first performance in Great Britain was also at a pub called "The King and Queen", and he also appeared more literally "on the sidelines in a (the) cast" – as one of many stars
at the back far right of the cover art of the Beatles' album ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' ("the Sergeants played a marching tune"). as seen in the popular expression "As American as apple pie". By the twentieth century, this had become a symbol of American prosperity and national pride.
Mike Mills of
R.E.M. reflected: "'American Pie' just made perfect sense to me as a song and that's what impressed me the most. I could say to people this is how to write songs. When you've written at least three songs that can be considered classic that is a very high batting average and if one of those songs happens to be something that a great many people think is one of the greatest songs ever written you've not only hit the top of the mountain but you've stayed high on the mountain for a long time."
McLean's responses When asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean jokingly replied, "It means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to." Later, he stated, "You will find many interpretations of my lyrics but none of them by me... Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence." He also commented on the popularity of his music, "I didn't write songs that were just catchy, but with a point of view, or songs about the environment." In February 2015, however, McLean announced he would reveal the meaning of the lyrics to the song when the original manuscript went for auction in New York City, in April 2015. The lyrics and notes were auctioned on April 7, 2015, and sold for $1.2 million. In the sale catalogue notes, McLean revealed the meaning in the song's lyrics: "Basically in 'American Pie' things are heading in the wrong direction. It [life] is becoming less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense." The catalogue confirmed that the song climaxes with a description of the
killing of Meredith Hunter at the
Altamont Free Concert, ten years after the plane crash that killed Holly, Valens, and Richardson, and did acknowledge that some of the more well-known symbols in the song were inspired by figures such as
Elvis Presley ("the king") and
Bob Dylan ("the jester"). In 2022, the documentary ''The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean's American Pie'', produced by Spencer Proffer, was released on the
Paramount+ video on-demand service. Proffer said that he told McLean: "It's time for you to reveal what 50 years of journalists have wanted to know." McLean stated that he "needed a big song about America", and the first verse and melody ("A long, long time ago...") seemed to just come to mind. McLean also answered some of the long-standing questions on the song's lyrics, although not all. He revealed that Presley was not the king referenced in the song, Joplin was not the "girl who sang the blues", and Dylan was not the jester, although he is open to other interpretations. ==Personnel==