November 1972.

This may have appeared countless times over the years, but I’m not complaining. Apart from anything, it means I get an eight minute and thirty-three second lie in on a Wednesday morning. Well, it would be awfully rude not to wait for a song like this to finish!

There has been so much speculation over the years as to the meaning behind this song, with the most popular opinion being that it is about the death of Buddy Holly. There is only Don McLean himself who knows the truth though…and he isn’t giving anything away.

When asked directly about the meaning of the song he once jokingly replied “It means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.” He has also been quoted as saying that songwriters “should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence.” Good to his word, he has kept that dignified silence for fifty years now and left us wondering and debating all this time.

From the 1971 album of the same name, the single became a global top ten hit on its release, including reaching number one in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, where it spent four weeks in the top spot. The original release in the UK spent sixteen weeks on the charts and peaked at number two, whilst a re-release in 1991 spent a further ten weeks on the charts before peaking at number twelve.