MANILA, Philippines—Don Mclean has an idea why his songs still resonate among a lot of people, including some of today’s youth eager to see him perform.
“First, I believe I made good records, and these records fortunately had commercial appeal, people wanted to hear them,” the American singer-songwriter told the Philippine Daily Inquirer shortly after arriving from Singapore for his concert Wednesday night at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
“Second,” he added, “the songs were very different at the time they came out. But they still sound unusual all these years later. They weren’t the ‘simple’ kind of songs.”
McLean, now 65, whose voice doesn’t seem to have been too adversely affected by time, was referring to the tunes that made him one of the most popular figures of the folk-rock era in the 1970s. Two of the songs, “American Pie” and “Vincent,” became top hits not long after they were released.
“American Pie” spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1972.
Beyond analysis
The song is memorable not only for its unusual length of over eight minutes, but mainly due to its engaging story about grieving over the death of rock ’n’ roll star Buddy Holly and the passing of the ’60s era. Its lyrics prompted curiosity and were endlessly scrutinized by fans and scholars.
Commenting on the attention that his lyrics had attracted, McLean said in a past interview: “They’re beyond analysis. They’re poetry.”
Indeed, much of the beauty of McLean’s songs could be seen through their carefully crafted lines.
“Vincent,” which also soared to No. 1 in the United Kingdom in 1972, was inspired by the artist Vincent van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night.” Its lyrics describe the painting itself (“Paint your palette blue and gray …”) and Van Gogh’s tortured existence (“How you suffered for your sanity”).
Other McLean compositions that have stayed in the memory of millions of people include: “And I Love You So,” a 1973 hit for Perry Como and famously covered by Elvis Presley, as well as by Helen Reddy, Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell and Engelbert Humperdinck; “Wonderful Baby,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Easy Listening chart; “If We Try” (“When I see you on the street, I lose my concentration…”); and “Birthday Song” (If I could say the things I feel, it wouldn’t be the same…”).
McLean says that songs do not necessarily have to become hits to affect people.
“For example, the guy who started Greenpeace claims that he was influenced by a song that I wrote called ‘Tapestry.’ And it’s not a hit song. It’s the idea of the song that influences a person to do something that could possibly change the world. It is a false idea to always be thinking of hits. What a songwriter has to do is say the things that matter, write about concepts, political or otherwise, and they will influence people,” he said.