Don McLean's 'American Pie' 50th anniversary tour will include a stop at UIS

Steven Spearie, State Journal-Register
·2 min read
Don McLean will play at the University of Illinois Springfield Performing Arts Center on July 23.
Don McLean will play at the University of Illinois Springfield Performing Arts Center on July 23.

Don McLean's tour marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the iconic album "American Pie" will include a stop at the University of Illinois Springfield's Performing Arts Center July 23.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday.

The song "American Pie," clocking in at 8 minutes and 42 seconds long, was initially inspired by McLean’s memories of being a paperboy and learning of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash, referenced as "the day the music died."

Holly, Valens and the Big Bopper had been scheduled to play a "Winter Dance Party" show at the Illinois State Armory in Springfield on Feb. 15

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There are also believed references in the song to Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Charles Manson, the Beatles and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

McLean said "of all the unique oddities of my career, I am perhaps proudest of the fact that I am forever linked with Buddy Holly."

McLean's original handwritten lyrics of the song sold for $1.2 million in 2015.

“Basically in ‘American Pie,’ things are heading in the wrong direction,” McLean was quoted around the time of the sale, offering an explanation for the song. “It is becoming less idyllic. I don’t know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense.”

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The album also featured "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)" and "Castles in the Air."

It was released in late 1971, but the single "American Pie" didn't chart until 1972.

McLean's other hits include "And I Love You So," "Since I Don't Have You," "Wonderful Baby," "It's Just the Sun" and "Crying," a remake of the Roy Orbison classic.

Pure Oldies 107.5 radio station in Springfield still plays "American Pie."

McLean played a free show at Washington Park in Springfield in 1986.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Don McLean's Springfield concert to celebrate 'American Pie'