Lyrics

A long long time ago I can still remember

How that music used to make me smile

And I knew that if I had my chance

I could make those people dance

And maybe they'd be happy for a while

Did you write the book of love

And do you have faith in God above

If the Bible tells you so

Now do you believe in rock 'n roll

And can music save your mortal soul

And can you teach me how to dance real slow

Well, I know that you're in love with him

Cause I saw you dancin in the gym

You both kicked off your shoes

Man, I dig those rhythm and blues

I was a lonely teenage broncin buck

With a pink carnation and a pickup truck

But I knew that I was out of luck

The day the music died

I started singing

Bye bye Miss American Pie

Drove my chevy to the levee

But the levee was dry

And good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye

Singin this will be the day that I die

This will be the day that I die

I met a girl who sang the blues

And I asked her for some happy news

But she just smiled and turned away

Well, I went down to the sacred store

Where I'd heard the music years before

But the man there said the music wouldn't play

Well now in the streets the children screamed

The lovers cried and the poets dreamed

But not a word was spoken

The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire the most

The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost

They caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died

We started singing

Bye bye Miss American Pie

Drove my chevy to the levee

But the levee was dry

And good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye

Singin this will be the day that I die

This will be the day that I die

Bye bye Miss American Pie

Drove my chevy to the levee

But the levee was dry

And good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye

Singin this will be the day that I die

This will be the day that I die

We started singin'

We started singin'

We started singin'

Credits

Written by Don McLean

Produced by Madonna and William Orbit

Background vocals by Rupert Everett

Mixed by Mark -Spike- Stent

Guitars, drums and keyboards by William Orbit

Album

The Next Best Thing (OST)

Music (Non-US version)

Single

In 2000 Madonna and Rupert Everett starred in The Next Best Thing, a comedy drama. Madonna's character is Abbey, a single woman in her early 30s who ends up having a child with her gay friend. The movie tries to handle issues as single parentship, child custody and homosexuality. At one point Abbey and her friends are at the funeral of a friend who died from aids and they start singing Don McLean's classic 'American Pie'. Rupert Everett convinced Madonna to cover the song and add it to the soundtrack. Madonna and William Orbit reworked the song, making it shorter and more dancy. Released in the spring of 2000, American Pie reached #1 in a lot of countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy and Finland. Ironically there was no commercial single release in the US, but the single still reached the #29 spot, just based on airplay.

The song was added as a bonus track on the Music album (outside the US). In an interview with BBC's Jo Whiley in November 2001, Madonna admits regretting this decision, which "a certain record company exec twisted her arm into doing". To 'punish' the song, it wasn't included in GHV2.

Video

The video pays tribute to the seventies in which the original song by Don McLean was recorded. They show several snaps of ordinary people; playing children, happy couples, a lonely woman in a store, etc. Director Philip Stolzl used a lot of splitscreens to show both those ordinary people and a rather extraordinary Madonna. Maddy is dressed in a blue shirt and a baggy jeans. On her dark blonde Raphael curls she's wearing a tiara. All through the video she's dancing in front of a large American flag. Rupert Everett - who did backing vocals - appears once in a while too, but there are no scenes from the movie. Funniest moments of the video are when Madonna turns around and shows the crack of her ass, and at the end, when she pulls up her trousers and then tears them when she sits down.