Donald "Don" McLean (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".

McLean's magnum opus, "American Pie", is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. The song popularized the expression "The Day the Music Died" in reference to this event.

In 2001 "American Pie" was voted No. 5 in a poll of the 365 Songs of the Century compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

American Pie is McLean’s second album; his first, Tapestry, having been released to only moderate commercial success and acclaim in 1970. McLean was a protégé of Pete Seeger, having played with him in the 1960s. The album American Pie was intended as a unified work, as McLean has said that he was influenced by The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album and envisioned American Pie to be a similar album. Believing that an artist's work should stand by itself, McLean generally did not offer explanations for his work's themes or meaning,though he did describe the title song as involving "a sense of loss".The album was dedicated to Buddy Holly, a childhood icon of McLean's, and was released in 1971 on the heels of the '60s, the defining decade of McLean’s generation. It has a melancholy feel and rather sparse arrangements. At the time of the writing McLean’s first marriage was failing and the optimism and hopefulness of the 1960s was giving way to the nihilism and hedonism of the 1970s.

Noteworthy

• The title track contains references to the death of Buddy Holly (McLean being a 13-year-old paper-boy at the time). The phrase "The Day the Music Died" was used by McLean on this song, and has now become an unofficial name for the tragedy.
• The third track and second single "Vincent" concerns the Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh, and is sometimes given the alternative title of "Starry, Starry Night".
• "The Grave", originally a protest song against the Vietnam War, was covered by Wham! member George Michael in protest against the Iraq War in 2003.
• "Babylon" is a close paraphrase of the 137th Psalm,based on the canon By the Waters of Babylon by Philip Hayes.

(WIKIPEDIA)

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