Don McLean

Don McLean, born in New Rochelle in 1945, is a singer-songwriter of the old troubadour school: a guitar, a banjo, a voice that doesn't need to shout, and a willingness to let a song run as long as the story demands. He let one run past the 8-minute mark, and "American Pie" turned into the kind of record people quote at each other like scripture, a folk rock saga that has been called a cultural touchstone and that he will never be allowed to leave behind.

He was never just the one song, whatever the jukebox says. "Vincent", "Castles in the Air", "Dreidel" and "Wonderful Baby" all hit, and he gave his own reading of Roy Orbison's "Crying" and the Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You". Other singers came shopping in his notebook, too: Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Helen Reddy and Glen Campbell all cut "And I Love You So". Folk rock is his home turf, though he has wandered off into country and easy listening when the mood took him.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted him in 2004, and BMI has counted millions of radio plays for "American Pie" alone, which squares with what rock radio's listeners keep telling the countdowns.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.