American Pie

Music-Thing-a-Week Year 3
#9 American Pie
Don McLean 1971
Heard this song a lot growing up, especially when staying with cousins in Sydney. It was one of the first pieces of sheet music I ever bought, and I worked out how to play on guitar.
My awareness of the song got another boost when Weird Al used it as the basis for "The Saga Begins", his song about the first of the Star Wars prequels. (Some might say this was the best thing to come out of the prequels... :P )
I was very amused to find that Don McLean's kids really liked the Weird Al version, and played it often enough that Don found himself accidentally singing the Weird Al lyrics during a performance.
And it's a long song for the era. Most popular songs came in under 3 minutes long, my version is over 7, and I'm cracking along at a fair pace for most of it.
Anyway, enjoy!