‘American Pie’ Singer’s Italian Roots

By Joseph “Sonny” Scafetta, Jr

Don developed an interest in music while listening to opera at the home of his maternal grandparents.

Donald McLean III was born in New Rochelle,

New York, on October 2, 1945. His father was Donald McLean Jr., of Scottish Protestant descent. His mother was Elizabeth Bucci, a Roman Catholic whose parents had emigrated from the region of Abruzzo, Italy. Don went with his parents after every Sunday Mass to the home of his maternal grandparents in Port Chester, New York, for an Italian dinner. He developed an interest in music by listening to Italian opera there. When Don was 12, he took voice lessons from an Italian opera teacher who taught him breath control and tone support, so he never screamed like most male rock stars. He also studied an Italian song style known as Belafonte Singing. After his father died when Don was 15, the boy dropped the use of III from his name. He then bought his first guitar at age 16.

Don graduated from the Iona Preparatory School in June 1963 and he went to Villanova University in Pennsylvania. After one semester, he moved back home to New Rochelle to attend Iona College from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration in June 1968. After graduation, Don married Carol Sauvion in her home town of Philadelphia in early 1969. He then began in earnest to pursue a career as a singer and a song writer. After writing, singing, and recording the songs for an album that he called Tapestry in 1969 in Berkeley, California, he presented it to 72 different record producers. All rejected it before a new label called Media Arts decided to take a chance on him and released it in 1970. It attracted good reviews, but little notice outside the folk community.

Media Arts was soon taken over by United Artists Records. Meanwhile, Don was writing and singing the songs for a second album which he called American Pie. The title song was recorded on May 26, 1971, and received its first radio air play in New York City a month later. On January 15, 1972, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains his most successful release. With a total running time of eight minutes and 36 seconds, “American Pie” is the longest song to reach number one. Listeners were intrigued by its cryptic lyrics. Many disc jockeys tried to unravel their meaning, but Don declined to say anything definitive about them at that time. He released his third album named simply Don McLean later in 1972.

The most popular single on the album was Vincent which was a tribute to the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853- 1890). In 1973 Don released his fourth album Playing Favorites and in 1974 he released his fifth album Homeless Brother. It was his final studio recording for United Artists Records. In 1976 he and his wife divorced. They had no children. Starting in 1977 and continuing for the next 43 years, Don released 17 more albums. They included several well-known songs such as “And I Love You So,” “Castles in the Air,” “Wonderful Baby,” “Superman’s Ghost”, and “The Grave”. Although Don’s subsequent albums did not match the commercial success of his first three, he became a major concert attraction in the United States and abroad. In 1987, Don married Patrisha Shnier of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

They have two children and two grandchildren. Over the course of his career, Don has received many honors. His alma mater, Iona College, conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 2001. In February 2002, American Pie was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, Don was inducted into the Song Writers Hall of Fame. His authorized biography, The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs, was published in 2007. In February 2012, he received the British Broadcasting Radio to Folk Life Achievement Award. In March 2012, the Public Broadcasting System showed a feature-length documentary called Don McLean: American Troubadour. In 2016 Don and his second wife divorced after 29 years of marriage. Subsequently, he set up the Don McLean Foundation as a charity funded by all of his income in perpetuity. He also established a nature preserve at his Lakeview Estate in Camden, Maine, where he now lives alone.

In a recent interview with Italian America Magazine about Abruzzo, he said: “I did go to Italy a few years ago and had the best time. I would love to go back again.” When asked about Italian dishes, he added: “Yesterday, I made spaghetti and meatballs myself. I did a great job; it really tasted delicious. I especially like mussels with marinara sauce.” So, it sounds like Don is finally returning to the Italian roots of his youth at 75 years of age.

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_McLean, accessed May 16, 2021.

Vincent Van Gogh, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 5th edition, at page 2859, Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co., 1993.