At an auction on Tuesday at New York City’s Christie’s Auction House, Don McLean sold his original manuscript to ‘American Pie’ for $1.2 million. Which at ~$.79 a pop, is like over 1.5 million hot apple pies from McDonald’s, so things are looking pretty sweet for Mr. McLean these days.
‘American Pie’ is one of the most famous songs in music history, and is famous for popularizing the phrase ‘the day the music died’, referring to February 3, 1959 when Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper all died in a plane crash. The sale for $1.2 million makes it the third highest price ever for an American manuscript (per wikipedia). At only 16-pages long, the original manuscript for the 8+ minute song breaks out to roughly $75,000-per-page, which again, is a shit ton of apple pies from MacDeezy if he’s so inclined.
Even after one of the biggest auctions in history, I have to think that at this point in his life Don McLean hates this song. There wasn’t a public appearance or performance in his adult life where he wasn’t forced to play this song, sometimes probably multiple times. After decades and decades of strumming and singing the same tune on repeat I’d have to imagine the bile began to rise in ol’ Don’s stomach, and he truly resented this song. In some ways I imagine that by selling the manuscript Don McLean was actually exorcising the demons from his life. But on the other hand, ‘American Pie’ was Don McLean’s only #1 hit in his career. So it was probably one of those really muddied ‘love-hate’ relationships that only artists talk about. In fact, I’d venture so far as to say that this GIF is a metaphor for Don’s entire life:
There’s no official word yet on whether or not Don McLean will be dropping all $1.2 million apple pies from McDonald’s, but if he does I’ll keep you all informed of that important purchase.
[CNBC]