February 3rd is the anniversary of “the day the music died” which refers to the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll performers Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. Today, we are also celebrating the 50th Anniversary of  Don McLean’s 8 ½ minute classic “American Pie”.

Here’s our interview with Don McLean:

“American Pie” was recorded and released on the American Pie album in 1971. The song was listed as the No. 5 song on the RIAA project Songs of the Century.  A truncated version of the song was covered by Madonna in 2000 and reached No. 1 in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.  McLean’s combined version is being the longest song to reach number one and the fourth longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (at the time of release it was the longest).  In 2017, McLean’s original recording was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant”.