As you'll see on tomorrow's Super Chart, we have reached the 50th Anniversary of the premier of Don McLean’s nostalgic hit “American Pie” making the charts. As such, I thought we would do a special tribute here today.
There is no question the song was unique ... there had really never been anything quite like it before ... and when it first hit, there was all kind of speculation as to what all the hidden meanings contained in the song lyrics really meant. Don McLean was being especially coy about the whole thing at the time, preferring to keep an element of mystery in play … but, in fact, beyond its catchy chorus, it also served as almost a music history lesson.
Since its release, the date of February 3rd,
1959, has been remembered as “The Day The Music Died” … as this is the date that
the plane carrying Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens went down
near Mason City, Iowa, taking the lives of all three up-and-coming rock and roll stars.
McLean may have started there, but his lyrics then
took us through The British Invasion (with nods to both The Beatles and The
Rolling Stones), Dylan, the turmoil and unrest of the turbulent ‘60’s and beyond. (Keep in mind the song was released in
November of 1971 … there wasn’t anywhere NEAR as much rock and roll history to cover back then as
there is now!!!)
Still, it immediately captured the hearts of the nation and became
the most talked-about song on the radio since Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge!!! (Truth be told, there are only a handful of songs that manage to do this ... completely captivate the world and make us interpret their lyrics through our own imagination ... a year later, folks would be wondering just exactly who was so vain that Carly Simon felt the need to write a song about him!!!)
Things were no different here in Chicago at the time ... EVERYBODY was talking about this catchy new tune ... and what it really meant.
We used to listen to WCFL at work at the time (which begs the question, "Why would ANYONE ever think that having a jock with the skills of a Larry Lujack counting down the survey every afternoon would be a good idea??? What an INCREDIBLE waste of talent! But that is a topic for another day.)
Anyway, I will never forget (and keep in mind that this is when the song was BRAND new ... probably only out a week or two) one of my coworkers commenting, "I can't believe somebody made a song out of this and got it on the radio." I figured he meant the incredibly clever storyline ... but no, he was referring to the "drove my Chevy to the levy" sing-along chorus. When I asked him what he meant, he said "We used to sing that at our hunting lodge all the time! Been singing it for years!"
Now this guy Earl was hardly a music scholar ... and even back in late '71, I was already a pretty knowledgeable music guy ... and I was completely blown away by his comment and have never forgotten it. This was a brand new song! How was Earl already able to sing along with it as if he had been singing it for years?!?! And then telling me that he HAS been singing it for years!!! I have pondered this question for five decades now ... and mentioned it here a few times along the way to no response ... but I cannot help but address it here again today in the context of this special "American Pie" tribute. Feedback anyone? Perhaps some personal experience of your own with the tune?
Anyway, in an effort to get back on track ... and in honor of the 50th Anniversary, they have put together a brand new lyrics video, which you'll find below. (I have never made it a secret that after all the initial hoopla surrounding this tune ... and the non-stop airplay of it at the time ... I quickly burned out on it ... and have found it difficult to listen to ever since. That being said, America ate it up ... and it regularly places near the top of fan favorites when radio station do their special polls to this day. Incredibly, United Artists chose to split the song in half in order to feature it on both sides of the 45 ... TOTALLY disrupting the continuity and flow the record and making it even more impossible to enjoy. Perhaps even MORE amazing is that AM radio played the 8-minute album cut nearly every time ... something that was virtually unheard of at the time, even in the post "Hey Jude" / "MacArthur Park" era.
Back to my personal radio memories of 1971, WCFL Chicago Disc Jockey Bob Dearborn (a long-time friend of Forgotten Hits) was one of the first to offer a full analysis of the song’s lyrics. After he did so on his program one evening, the station was suddenly bombarded with mail (remember that this was back in the day when you actually had to WRITE a letter … with pen and paper … affix a stamp and MAIL it in to somebody in order for it to be seen and read!) over the next several days, asking for him to run it again or send them a copy.
Bob DID run it again … and again and again … and
pretty soon (in those pre-viral days) it became national news and radio
stations and newspapers all over the country were either running Bob’s
commentary or creating their own.
On the 30th Anniversary of “American Pie,”
Dearborn and radio guru Jeff Roteman set up a page explaining all of this …
which you can STILL view here:
http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/pie.html
In fact, we’ve even got the audio of Bob reviewing some of
what’s featured here on Jeff’s page as well as his original radio analysis.
A pretty remarkable time, to be sure.
Here is the brand new, 50th Anniversary video clip that we promised you ...
And, on a related note, long-time Forgotten Hits Reader Danny Guilfoyle recently sent me this EXCELLENT a cappella clip of Don McLean performing his classic “American Pie” with Home Free.
Now it’s no secret that I have never really been a
fan of this song …
But I have to admit that this version is OUTSTANDING … and I just had to
share it in the very special American Pie Anniversary Edition of Forgotten
Hits!
