The Don McLean Story
Don McLean shares his life story for the
first time...
The must have book for all Don McLean fans. Contents and extracts.
Don McLean Fans
The Don McLean Story
Don McLean shares his life story for the
first time...
The must have book for all Don McLean fans. Contents and extracts.
Don McLean Fans
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America's Legendary Singer-Songwriter
• Don McLean’s “American Pie” was selected as one of the five greatest songs of the 20th century in a poll by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. The other four songs were “This Land is Your Land,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “Respect,” and “White Christmas.”
• “American Pie” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.
• Don McLean was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2004.
• The following Don McLean songs have each
been played over three million times on American
radio: “American Pie,” “And I Love You So,”
“Vincent,” and “Castles in the Air.”
• Don McLean attended the Founder’s Dinner at
the Clinton White House on New Year’s Eve, 1999.
He then performed at the “Concert for the
Millennium,” produced by Quincy Jones. The
dinner and the concert honored people who had
influenced the 20th century.
• Don McLean won the folk-singing contest at
the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.
• In 1968 Don McLean earned a BA degree from
Iona College with a major in finance and a minor
in philosophy.
• In 2001 McLean received an honorary doctorate
from Iona College.
• Don McLean always sings “American Pie” in
concert, despite press accounts to the contrary.
• An urban legend claims that “American Pie” was
the name of Buddy Holly’s plane. It is not true.
Buddy Holly did not own a plane.
• The song “Tapestry” inspired the creation of
the environmental action group “Greenpeace.”
• Don McLean’s song “Babylon” is the theme song
for the German Green Party.
• A bronze plaque containing the poem “So Long
Hopalong Cassidy,” from the original American
Pie album, hangs in the hospital where William
Boyd, the star of Hopalong Cassidy, died in
1972.
• Johnny Cash wrote “I Wish I Could Yodel” after
hearing Don sing “Lovesick Blues” in Cash’s
home.
• The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam plays
McLean’s “Vincent” regularly. A copy of the
sheet music is buried along with Van Gogh’s
paint brushes in a time capsule at the museum.
• Because of McLean’s song “The Legend of Andrew
McCrew,” radio station WGN in Chicago raised
money for a headstone for the mummified hobo
featured in the song.
• Don McLean’s “And I Love You So” is the last
song on Elvis in Concert, the last album Elvis
Presley recorded.
• Don McLean’s hit record “Crying” features
Elvis’ band and back-up singers, the Jordanaires.
• The song “Jerusalem” was composed for that
city at the request of its mayor.
• George Michael sang McLean’s anti-war song
“The Grave” in protest of America’s invasion of
Iraq, in March of 2003.
• Artists as diverse as: Madonna, Fred Astaire,
Chet Atkins, Weird Al Yankovic, Elvis Presley,
Josh Groban, Perry Como, and Coolio have
performed McLean’s songs.
• According to the movie “Tupac, the
Resurrection,” Tupac Shakur was influenced by
Don McLean, and his favorite song was “Vincent.”
• Mike Mills of REM says the album Don McLean is
one of his all-time favorites.
• Don McLean is a skilled western horseman. He
owns and trained three Appaloosa horses.
• Don McLean has 50 pairs of custom-made western
boots, and he wears only Levi 501 button-fly
jeans.
• In the year 2000 the Martin Guitar Company
created a limited edition signature Don McLean
guitar, the D-40DM.
• Don McLean was the first American artist to
perform at the Sydney Opera House.
• Don McLean was the guest artist at the Boston
Pops Fourth of July celebration in 2000, the
first of the century.
• Garth Brooks introduced Don McLean as “my
idol” to over 1,000,000 New Yorkers at a 1997
concert in Central Park. And the musicians sang
“American Pie” together.
• Don McLean was the first songwriter to have
No. 1 singles in two separate centuries.
• David New, a British fan, has a picture of Don
McLean tattooed in color across his entire back.
He was the first fan to do this in 1978.
• The Don McLean Foundation sends students, who
cannot otherwise afford it, to college and
contributes to homeless shelters and food banks
in the state of Maine.
Extract from The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs by Alan Howard Copyright 2007 Starry Night Music, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Used by permission