Don McLean in performance at The Sage Gateshead in May 2015.

‘American Pie' star coming to Mullingar

The American singer who is probably best known for ‘American Pie’ is coming to Mullingar on Tuesday night.

The legend that is Don McLean and his band play a special concert at the Mullingar Park Hotel on Tuesday June 5.

Born in New Rochelle, NY, McLean is best known for his 1971 song ‘American Pie’, which was a number one hit in the US in 1972 (and for Madonna in 2000) and his other popular hits include ‘Vincent’, a tribute to Vincent van Gogh, and ‘Castles in the Air’, which he recorded twice.

A noted songwriter as well as performer, his song ‘And I Love You So’, was recorded by Elvis Presley and Glen Campbell, among others.

Awards and accolades throughout his career have included being inaugurated into the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2004 and awarded the BBC Folk Music Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

In 2011 McLean performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival (‘The veteran singer-songwriter’s take on ‘American Pie’, with multiple extra choruses, was another heartwarming, communal high’ – The Independent).

In 2014 he performed for 30,000 people at the Stagecoach Festival – one of the premier country music events in the United States.

According to the Daily News ‘the audience went wild, screaming, jumping, dancing. Even after the song was over, the audience still lingered, basking in the afterglow of the performance’.

Tickets for Don McLean and his full touring band in concert at the Mullingar Park Hotel Tuesday June 5 are on sale from hotel reception and ticketmaster.ie.

American Pie

The song was recorded on May 26, 1971. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from January 15 to February 5, 1972, and remains McLean’s most successful single release. It also topped the Billboard Easy Listening survey.

It is the longest song to reach number one, at 8:36 (according to Wikipedia.org).

American Pie was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and named the fifth greatest song of the 20th Century by the NEA-RIAA.