# Bye Bye Miss American Pie — it hit #1, 50 yrs ago tomorrow **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 14, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780 "2022-01-14T15:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/1 "2022-01-14T15:31:50Z")
A favorite song, Miss American Pie, will hit #1 tomorrow, 50 years ago. I can’t imagine anyone hating this song…? If you have a chance to visit Clear Lake, Iowa, the Surf Ballroom there is an homage to rock & roll history. And the corn field where the music died is also worth a visit. There’s a makeshift shrine there. Here are a couple photos from my visit a couple of years ago. [[Album] American Pie — it hit #1 50 years ago ![](https://i.imgur.com/Ec1GXcl.jpeg?fb "American Pie — it hit #1 50 years ago") ](https://imgur.com/gallery/vOVNou4) Beginning in Honolulu on 28 January — [Don McLean to embark on ‘American Pie 50th Anniversary Tour’](https://news.yahoo.com/don-mclean-embark-american-pie-045900071.html) Don McLean is 74 years old. Rock on, Don McLean! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/2 "2022-01-14T15:48:45Z")
A long long time ago I can still remember when…I first heard it. I think I liked it from the beginning. I had the 45. A side: the first half. B side, the second half. You think it’s bad flipping an LP? Try a 45 just to hear one song. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/3 "2022-01-14T15:53:55Z")
I didn’t have the 45 but I remember standing at the jukebox and deciding whether I wanted to spemd my dime on part one or part two. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/4 "2022-01-14T16:11:44Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > A favorite song, Miss American Pie, will hit #1 tomorrow, 50 years ago. I can’t imagine anyone hating this song…? I love this song, but I can imagine some people might not like it. What I can’t understand is how that was 50 years ago. I remember it pretty well. We also had the 45. Learned last weekend that a guitarist who played with Buddy Holly pre-Crickets (Sonny Curtis) later wrote the theme song for the Mary Tyler Moore Show. (and _I fought the law and the law won_). ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/5 "2022-01-14T16:13:38Z")
Soooo, is that Chevy at the levee considered an antique car now? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/6 "2022-01-14T16:24:47Z")
In 2015, McLean sold the manuscript of the lyrics to “American Pie.” For (only) $1.2M [https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/06/entertainment/feat-american-pie-lyrics-mclean-auction/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/06/entertainment/feat-american-pie-lyrics-mclean-auction/index.html) > The draft that was auctioned is 16 pages: 237 lines of manuscript and 26 lines of typed text, according to Christie’s. It includes lines that didn’t make the final version as well as extensive notes – all of which should be revealing, McLean said. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/7 "2022-01-14T16:33:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I had the 45. A side: the first half. B side, the second half. You think it’s bad flipping an LP? Try a 45 just to hear one song. > [@74westy](#): > > I didn’t have the 45 but I remember standing at the jukebox and deciding whether I wanted to spemd my dime on part one or part two. Where’d the break come in the record? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/8 "2022-01-14T16:45:58Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Soooo, is that Chevy at the levee considered an antique car now? Good evening, [he’s 79](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000331/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) and you’re not. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/9 "2022-01-14T16:47:02Z")
Way to cut to the Chase. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/10 "2022-01-14T17:16:03Z")
GOOD NIGHT and have a PLEASANT TOMORROW! ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/11 "2022-01-14T17:54:26Z")
> [@Darth\_Sensitive](#): > > Where’d the break come in the record? I sure don’t remember 50 years on but youtube remembers. Part 1 ends after > And while Lenin read a book on Marx > A quartet practiced in the park > And we sang dirges in the dark > The day the music died It does the chorus and then . . . does the chorus again and fads out (sounds like the second chorus was copied from the end) Side 2 starts right up with “Helter skelter in the summer swelter” [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4GwPZmPe8pw/hqdefault.jpg "1972\_003 - Don McLean - American Pie - (45)(pt 1) - (45)(4.04)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GwPZmPe8pw) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3bXwQ2ZR78c/hqdefault.jpg "American Pie (Pt. 2) - Don McLean - Original 45 RPM") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bXwQ2ZR78c) ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/12 "2022-01-14T17:56:36Z")
And of course I played part 2. > And as the flames climbed high into the night > To light the sacrificial rite > I saw Satan laughing with delight > The day the music died was an incredible lyric to a 10 year old. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/13 "2022-01-14T18:11:47Z")
I like the Weird Al version (The Saga Begins) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hEcjgJSqSRU/maxresdefault.jpg ""Weird Al" Yankovic - The Saga Begins (Official Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEcjgJSqSRU) Brian ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/14 "2022-01-14T18:14:30Z")
So how well are the three singers remembered nowadays? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9mDGcxbAusg/maxresdefault.jpg "Buddy Holly & The Crickets "That'll Be The Day" on The Ed Sullivan Show") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mDGcxbAusg) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4b-by5e4saI/hqdefault.jpg "Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-by5e4saI) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/jSKJQ18ZoIA/maxresdefault.jpg "Ritchie Valens - La Bamba") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSKJQ18ZoIA) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/15 "2022-01-14T19:00:31Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I like the Weird Al version Apparently, [so does Don McLean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_Begins#Response_from_Don_McLean). ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/16 "2022-01-14T19:03:12Z")
I recall Casey Kasem explaining the lyrics on _American Top Forty_ years and years ago. As I child I was impressed with the song and its lyrics. When I hear the record now I’m most impressed with the piano player. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/17 "2022-01-14T19:31:59Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > So how well are the three singers remembered nowadays? I’d say in terms of being remembered the order is Buddy Holly \> Richie Valens \> \> \> The Big Bopper. The first two had popular biopics made about them (although those films are now 44 and 35 years old respectively). And Weezer charted with _Buddy Holly_ in 1994 which also had a popular music video. So mostly remembered by old farts and those rapidly approaching old fartdom. ---
**Author:** ![SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpacemanSpiff_II)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/18 "2022-01-14T19:59:30Z")
> [@gnarator](#): > > I recall Casey Kasem explaining the lyrics on _American Top Forty_ years and years ago. As I child I was impressed with the song and its lyrics. I personally don’t believe the lyrics have any actual meaning. I think they were stuff that sounded good and were vague enough such that they could be interpreted to refer to all sorts of things. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/19 "2022-01-14T20:19:47Z")
> [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](#): > > I personally don’t believe the lyrics have any actual meaning. I think they do, but McLean is the only one that can decipher them. American Pie is like a compressed file, but you can’t re-expand it with 100% recovery. You can encode “I once met Janis Joplin, and she was sad, and now she’s dead” into “I met a girl who sang the blues/and I asked her for some happy news/but she just smiled and turned away”, but it doesn’t work the other way. Start with the song lyric, and I could come up with three or four “meanings” that all fit just as well. “the birds (Byrds?) flew off with a fallout shelter Eight Miles High and falling fast” That’s not a coincidence. It’s a reference to the band. But what does it _mean_? Why them? That is unknowable to anyone outside of Don’s head. Are “the father, son and the holy ghost” Holly, Richardson and Valens? JFK, RFK and MLKJr? The literal Trinity? Who can say? One can make a case for any or all of them. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780/20 "2022-01-14T20:28:54Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > the father, son and the holy ghost I had that line wrong. I thought it was “The three men I admire the most: Ron Howard, Anson Williams and Donnie Most.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bye-bye-miss-american-pie-it-hit-1-50-yrs-ago-tomorrow/957780.md?page=2)