TNB Night Owl – Don McLean

Ten_string_classical_guitar — Ten string guitar. Image captured by the News Blender.

Writing popular songs isn’t easy, or we’d all be doing it and raking in the moolah. Writing a popular song that also happens to have deep meaning is even tougher. Don McLean had two. American Pie and Vincent were so extraordinary that most people don’t realize or remember that he had other tunes that were also hits at the time. American Pie and, to a lesser extent, Vincent, overshadowed McLean’s other works such that they are all but forgotten.

I myself had forgotten these other songs. In fact, I was looking for other artists to pair with McLean to fill up this Night Owl when I realized he had written and recorded other songs worthy of spotlighting. You might remember them once you hear them again. If you’re hearing them for the first time, this is what great songwriting sounds like.

Note that two of the songs on tonight’s playlist are covers, done at a time when covers were still widely popular and nostalgia for the recent past was a major cultural trend. The other six songs on this playlist, however, are McLean’s original work, par excellence. The first one, And I Love You So, has been covered by many other artists, including Elvis, Glen Campbell, Perry Como, Bobby Goldsboro, Bobby Vinton, Emmylou Harris, Engelbert Humperdinck, Harry Connick, Jr., Helen Reddy, Johnny Mathis, Olivia Newton-John, Tom T. Hall, and others.

1971
And I Love You So (4:19)