American Pie - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

US singer-songwriter Don McLean’s commercial appeal in the UK had fallen after American Pie and his 1972 number one Vincent. So it’s surprising to discover he returned to the top of the pops eight years later with a cover of Roy Orbison’s classic ballad Crying.

Before

McLean had followed up the LP American Pie with his eponymous third, but there were no charting singles. In fact, only a live version of Buddy Holly’s Everyday, from fourth album Playin’ Favorites, made it to the charts for the rest of the 70s – and that only scraped in at 38 in 1973.

That same year, Killing Me Softly with His Song by Roberta Flack became a number six hit in the UK. It’s mentioned here because the song’s lyrics, credited to Norman Gimbel, were co-written by Lori Lieberman, who was inspired by witnessing a 1971 concert by McLean. 23 years later, the Fugees took Killing Me Softly to number 1 in the UK.

McLean’s fortunes weren’t helped by record label politics. After one more album for United Artists (1974’s Homeless Brother), he signed with Arista Records for four albums. However, he only recorded one – Prime Time – in 1977.

In 1978 McLean set to work on the next. Chain Lightning saw McLean record in Nashville with noted session players and also featured Elvis Presley’s old backing group, The Jordanaires. However, he and Arista founder Clive Davis didn’t get on, and the deal broke down. McLean was left without a recording contact in the US, but the LP was released through EMI in Europe.

Considering the roll call of veteran Nashville musicians on Chain Lightning, a cover of Roy Orbison’s Crying fitted in nicely. This song had been written by the ‘Big O’ with his regular collaborator Joe Melson, and was the title track of Orbison’s third album. Amazingly, the original version only managed to reach 25 in the UK in 1961.

Review

McLean’s version starts promising with just his acoustic strum and voice. And what a voice – it hits home here much more than on his previous UK hits what a great singer McLean is. It bodes well for a great cover of a classic break-up song. The trouble is, as impressive as McLean’s singing is, you can’t help compare it to one of the greatest singers of all time in Orbison. Few people can get that wounded heartbreak across quite like the Big O. And this version gets worse as it goes on. Had it stayed sparse, with those nice steel guitar sounds that creep in, I’d have liked Crying more.

The problem is Larry Butler’s production. Butler was a country music producer, responsible for huge hits including Kenny Rogers’ two number 1s – Lucille and Coward of the County. I’m not a fan of the dry, bland production of either of those, and this is worse. He overeggs the pudding way too much, smothering it in sickly strings and the Jordanaires wailing. It’s boring and totally ruins the sadness at the heart of Crying. Orbison’s original may sound old-fashioned in the 21st century, but it’s still more authentic than McLean’s.

The best version I’ve heard is Orbison’s duet with Canadian singer-songwriter kd lang. Originally recorded in 1987 for the film soundtrack to Hiding Out, it was released as a single four years after the Big O’s death, climbing to 13 in 1992.

I also feel I need to mention my bafflement at the sleeve for this single. Either a giant McLean is looking to the sky in terror as a plane appears to be heading for his mouth, or McLean is normal-sized and the plane is tiny. Either way… what’s that all about? I hope it’s not some kind of reference to ‘The Day the Music Died’.

Actually, no, the best version of Crying, as we all know, is from an episode of Only Fools and Horses in 1991. ‘Stage Fright‘ features Philip Pope as Tony Angelino, a club singer with a speech impairment.

After

Arriving hot on the heels of What’s Another Year and Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless), this was the third sad number 1 in a row during the spring/summer of 1980. McLean’s European success with Crying resulted in a US deal with Millennium Records, who released the single and its album to success in America – Crying peaked there at five in 1981. However, chart fame has mostly eluded him ever since. In 1981, a cover of Since I Don’t Have You reached 23 in the US, and a new version of his debut, Castles in the Air, scraped in at 36 later that year. You could argue that he didn’t help matters by making his releases few and far between. In the 80s he only released two LPs, and his next and to date final chart news took place thanks to a re-release of American Pie, which climbed to 12 in 1991. He continues to release albums, albeit sporadically. The last to date was Still Playin’ Favorites in 2020.

The Outro

McLean has received many plaudits over the years, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His music has influenced many, including, perhaps unexpectedly, rappers. Tupac Shakur’s favourite song was Vincent and it was played to him when he was in a coma after his shooting. He’s also received songwriting credits on two songs by Drake.

Stories have surfaced in recent years of abusive and controlling behaviour towards family members. In 2016 he was arrested for domestic violence towards his then-wife Patrisha Shnier McLean, which he pled guilty to. His daughter Jackie told Rolling Stone in 2021 that he was emotionally abusive to. McLean admitted aspects of her account were true, but denied emotional abuse.

The Info

Written by

Roy Orbison & Joe Melson

Producer

Larry Butler

Weeks at number 1

3 (21 June-11 July)

Trivia

Births

22 June: TV presenter Charlene White
23 June: Liberty X singer Jessica Taylor
29 June: Mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins
1 July: Actor Ricky Champ
7 July: Labour and Co-operative Party MP Jim McMahon
8 July: Author Nikesh Shukla

Deaths

21 June: Physiologist WAH Rushton
22 June: Solicitor Joseph Cohen
23 June: Scottish actor John Laurie
27 June: Scottish physicist Sir Gordon Sutherland
1 July: Novelist CP Snow
3 July: Cricketer Charles Benstead
4 July: Anthropologist Gregory Bateson
6 July: Composer Frank Cordell/Engineer Jeanie Dicks/Lawyer Sir Ralph Windham
7 July: Actor Reginald Gardiner

Meanwhile…

23 June: New company law makes insider trading in shares illegal.

24 June: Unemployment reaches 1,600,000 and becomes the post-war record.

26 June: The Glasgow Central by-election results in a Labour hold despite a swing of 14% to the Scottish National Party.

30 June: Circulation of the pre-decimal sixpence coin is withdrawn.

1 July: Aston Martin fails to raise the funds necessary to buy MG’s Abingdon car factory – putting it under risk of closure.

8 July: Despite Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher’s pleas, miners who are threatening to strike demand a 37% payrise.

10 July: An accidental fire during maintenance destroys Alexandra Palace’s Great Hall, Banqueting Suite, Dressing Rooms and Ice Rink.

The Intro

US singer-songwriter Don McLean is best known for American Pie, his folk-rock epic that referenced the plane crash that killed some of the brightest stars of the 50s. However, his first UK number 1 was its follow-up, the ode to Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, Vincent.

Before

Donald McLean III was born 2 October 1945 in New Rochelle, New York, with roots on his father’s side to Scotland. His mother was Italian. The young McLean suffered severe asthma and was forced to miss long periods of school, so he took solace in folk music, particularly The Weavers.

When McLean was 15, his father died and he immersed himself in music once more, buying his first guitar and starting to make contacts in the industry, including befriending Fred Hellerman from The Weavers. He graduated from preparatory school in 1963 and dropped out of Villanova University after four months and became a part-time student so he could devote himself to folk music. He became a regular at venues in New York and Los Angeles.

1968 was a pivotal year for McLean, where he finally chose music over education. He turned down a scholarship in Colombia and later on received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to expand his live performances. He took advice from folk legend Pete Seeger and supported him in 1969.

While the Berkeley student riots went on around him in California, McLean recorded his debut album Tapestry. The album was rejected 72 times, until the small label Mediarts released it in 1970. McLean may well have remained unknown, had the company not been bought out by United Artists Records. With a much bigger budget behind him, he recorded his follow-up American Pie.

As the world knows, the title track, released in late 1971 after the album, was the biggest song of McLean’s career. This sprawling epic, inspired by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in 1959, popularised the term ‘the day the music died’ after the plane crash that killed them. It also charted his youth and developments in youth culture – at least, that’s the theory, as McLean has never explained. American Pie reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, but stalled at number two in the UK. It took Madonna to make it a number 1, in 2000.

Track three on the LP, Vincent, was inspired by McLean looking through a book about Van Gogh one morning. One of the artworks he came across was The Starry Night. This oil on canvas, pained in June 1889, depicted Van Gogh’s view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence psychiatric hospital. Van Gogh was prone to psychotic episodes and delusions, and had famously cut off part of his left ear during an argument with Paul Gaugin. Van Gogh had entered this hospital a month prior to his painting, and a year later he was dead from a self-inflicted shot to the chest.

Review

The Starry Night is a beautiful painting, and the opening to Vincent is too.

‘Starry starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul’

Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there. I must admit Vincent has never interested me beyond that intro and upon further research, I’m put off even less. The lyrics are rather patronising – McLean gives the impression that he understands the fate of Van Gogh because he too is some kind of tortured genius, and that we mere normal people will never understand it. Maybe so, but this isn’t a work of genius, it’s average, and I have to confess I’ve always found American Pie somewhat overrated too. So yes, McLean, to paraphrase, I would not listen, I’m not listening still, and perhaps I never will. I can live with that.

The Outro

It would be eight years before McLean’s next number 1, a cover of Roy Orbison’s Crying.

The Info

Written by

Don McLean

Producer

Ed Freeman

Weeks at number 1

2 (17-30 June)

Meanwhile…

18 June: British European Airways Flight 548 crashed near Staines in Surrey. 116 of the 118 people on board were dead by the time ambulances arrived, and the two survivors died before reaching hospital. It was the worst UK disaster for 16 years, until the Lockerbie bombing. An inquiry later revealed the pilot had a heart condition and an argument with crew may have caused the plane to have a deep stall.

23 June: Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber announced a decision to float the pound as a temporary measure. It has floated ever since.