Rock ‘n’ roll in those days was sort of like hula hoops and Buddy hadn’t had a big hit on the charts since ’57.” By cathartically writing “American Pie,” McLean has guaranteed that the memory of those great musicians lives forever. “The next day I went to school in shock and guess what?” McLean recalled. “The Big Bopper” Richardson had been tragically killed in an airplane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa.
McLean was a paperboy when, on February 3, 1959, he saw that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Douglas Brinkley Courtesy Douglas Brinkley
