Posted on 04/04/2021 2:17:18 AM PDT by nickcarraway
SNIP “I was 14 when [Buddy Holly] died,” McLean says, “which was the same year my father died. It’s all wrapped up together. We basically had no money coming in when my dad left. We were destitute. But the thing I remember most from that time is, Buddy Holly is gone.”
It inspired him to write and record his breakout hit, 1971’s “American Pie,” which went on to be named one of the top five songs of the century by the National Endowment for the Arts and RIAA.
Stars on the Record Even today, far removed from the tragedy, he still listens to “The Buddy Holly Story” — his favorite of the late rocker’s albums, with hits like “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be the Day” — and feels the same familiar rush of emotions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Anything Beatles made me the shower singer I am today...
The buzz about Don McLean was that the Roberta Flack song “Killing me Softly” was about him.
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/roberta-flack/killing-me-softly-with-his-song#:~:text=The%20story%20goes%20that%20the,of%20McLean‘s%20performance%20to%20Norman
Son's playlist decades later: Beatles, Creedence and varieties of pagode.
“American Pie” has always been one of radio’s best songs, (It always gave jocks time to hit the bathroom and a vending machine on the way back to the studio.) I think “Vincent” is by far Don McLean’s best work. Too bad it doesn’t get the airplay it deserves.
I did not know about this song until coming across it this year in a YT video. Have to agree.
I also "discovered" a bunch of Gilbert O'Sullivan songs that should have been more widely known. "We Will", "Nothing Rhymed", "Claire"...
So, bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol’ boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”
The Day the Music Died was Feb. 3, 1959, when a plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper.
I remember it well.
Vincent, in my opinion is one of the great songs in my lifetime and I basically span from 1950 to now. (I was born in 1940)
There was a DJ in Detroit who did a show he called Pillow Talk. Eventually it became 3 hours of slow tunes and love songs every night. He was very good at finding the unique and introducing the audience to some memorable music.
Vincent was in the rotation.
He played some real soul music too. Ray, Goodman and Brown, Larry Graham, Lou Rawls etc.
Detroit radio had a strong history of playing good music regardless of the skin tone of the artists. They cared about the music not the race and went far toward bringing the races together.
I had great seats to Earth Wind and Fire in 1983 with a great mixed race crowd.
Every so often, I run into someone, usually a waiter who is an ‘expert’ on The Day The Music Died. They will bet drinks, even the whole dinner on their knowledge of dates, names and times involved with the plane crash.
One young buck in Florida, wagered our dinner free against a hefty tip that he could answer anything about the people that died in the crash.
I asked him to name the pilot and didn’t let him leave the table (to check his cell phone) until he came up with the name. It was sweet, to watch a know-it-all humbled! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjuorHVXgHw
About three years ago, I was standing outside a hardware store talking with a friend of mine and suddenly, Summer Madness starts playing concert loud.
About 50 yards away, a guy with one of those large 3 wheeled car/motorcycle things painted in a salmon color with lots of bling and a heck of a sound system was filling up with gas and jamming to Kool and the Gang.
That song is the epitome of cool
I’ve always thought of long songs on the radio (e.g. Stairway to Heaven) as being “DJ gotta take a dump” songs.
bump
ff
I also named my Subaru Outback "Claire" in honor of the Gilbert O'Sullivan song.
O'Sullivan also performed one of my favorite Christmas songs called "The Christmas Song."
And no, this is not the "Christmas Song" many might first think of.
I am in agreement with you about Vincent.
Amazingly, with the exception of "Claire", his songs aren't autobiographical for the most part. He just possesses that storyteller's gift of getting inside the heads of the characters he creates.
For “Rockin’ the Wall,” my documentary; my chapter in “Seven Events that Made America,” and my book with Vanilla Fudge’s Mark Stein (”You Keep Me Hangin’ On”) I interviewed upwards of 100 rockers from the 60s/70s.
All but two cited the Beatles as their inspiration, and almost all of those cited specifically “I Want to Hold Your Hand” as the song that got them into music.
It was “Apache”,the jorgen inghman(sp) version, that got me into it.😄🎸 Now 60+/- years later I’m still playin’ (such as it is) with and to folks.
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