American Pie

"American Pie" is a 1971 song by American singer-songwriter Don McLean. The song is an epic, nearly nine-minute-long chronicle of American life in the mid-20th century, and it became a massive hit, spending four weeks at the top of the Billboard chart.12

The primary inspiration for "American Pie" was the February 3, 1959, plane crash that killed rock and roll pioneers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson. McLean viewed this event as the loss of innocence for early rock and roll, famously referring to it as "the day the music died". The song also broadly touches upon the turmoil in American culture and politics during the 1960s, though McLean has intentionally kept many of its specific references open to interpretation.12