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McLean developed a keen interest in music at a very young age, and purchased his first guitar aged 16 which he liked to play in front of friends and family. After graduating from school, and making a number of contacts in the industry, the singer honed his skills playing live for six or so years in various clubs across New York, U.S., Los Angeles, U.S. and Washington D.C.
In 1969 McLean recorded his debut album “Tapestry” which was rejected 72 times by labels although later upon release produced the singles “Castles In The Air” and “And I Love You So” which was made popular by Perry Como.
Then came the singer-songwriter’s commercial breakthrough with the album and single “American Pie” released through United Artist Records in. The single “American Pie” topped the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart as well as the Easy Listening chart and introduced McLean to the U.S. public no longer limited to folk scenes. The song has long been deemed one of the most popular and important in U.S. folk history.
After the success of “American Pie” McLean released his third studio album “Don McLean” in 1972 using many of the personnel of its predecessor although was reluctant to recreate the same sound. The singer-songwriter has subsequently released 1973’s “Playin’ Favourites”, 1974’s “Homeless Brother” and 1976’s “Solo", which following the release of, United Artists dropped McLean from his contract.
In 1980 the singer enjoyed his first Top 30 LP in nearly 30 years with the album “Chain Lightning”, which spawned the Roy Orbison cover “Crying” and the single “Since I Don’t Have You”. The resurgence however was short lived and his next two studio albums “Believers” in 1981 and “Dominion” in 1983 failed to chart and left McLean once again without a label.
Over the 1990s McLean released a string of Christmas and non-Christmas albums including “Headroom” (1990), “The River of Love” (1995) and “Christmas Dream” (1997) listened to mainly by his loyal folk following. In 2005 Mclean with the help of Joel Dorn released the retrospective album “Rearview Mirror”on Dorn’s label Hyena Records followed four years later with the album “Addicted to Black” (2009).
I do sometimes wonder if it’s time for a reappraisal of the term ‘one hit wonder’; it’s certainly come to take on negative connotations down the years - perhaps partly because it evokes images of cheesy pop tracks, rather than classics of songwriting - but if the song in question falls into the latter category, does the musician in question really deserve to be slapped with an undesirable tag? It’s a question that certainly applies to Don McLean, for whom ‘American Pie’ has dwarfed the rest of his back catalogue in terms of significance. The RIAA consider it the fifth greatest song of the past century, and not without reason; the eight-minute-plus epic is one of the finest pieces of musical songwriting ever committed to tape. Despite the fact that McLean has never quite managed to capture that magic in the same way since, it hasn’t put him off continuing to work; his most recent album, Addicted to Black, was released as recently as 2009, and he’s kept himself on the road, too, touring frequently across America and playing career-spanning sets that include his signature song and a handful of covers - most recently, the likes of Johnny Cash’s ‘Guess Things Happen That Way’ and Billie Holiday’s ‘I Don’t Want to Cry Anymore’ have been making the cut. His most recent lap of the UK came in late 2012, so you might have to wait for another album release before he makes it back again; knowing McLean, though, it shouldn’t be too long a delay.
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