Joel Wilcox wrote:
> One of those songs whose popularity and success you can't account for
> when you consider what came after it -- "Vincent" and "Castles in the
> Air" being examples. Being a very poor student at the time, I had to
> be selective about albums I bought and skipped "American Pie" because
> I'd heard it too much already. At some point later, I found McLean's
> album "Playing Favorites" in a remaindered bin and it is still a
> delight to me, it being a selection of old bluegrass tunes. But it
> was a bit like a conscious attempt to ratchet his fame down a notch.
> Others might even have called it commercial suicide.
>
May be more a matter of American Pie being the aberrant inspiration.
He's still playing and touring with bluegrass.
> "American Pie" was a phenomenon (i.e., a nine-day wonder)...
Had some legs, though:
'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.'
> Getting a hit like that is a little like winning the lottery.
He did have other "top 40" hits.
Moose - not a big McLean fan, just settin' the record straight.
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