Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1972-1982 | Albums that Should Exist

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1972-1982

Paul says: American singer-songwriter Don McLean is best known for his classic 1971 song "American Pie," but he's much, much more than that. That was such a massive Number One hit that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America" took a poll of music industry insiders in 2001 and voted it Number Five on a list of the most historically significant songs of the 20th century. That song has overshadowed the fact that McLean has had quite a successful music career even without it, including the hits "Vincent," "Castles in the Air," "Dreidel," and "Crying." 

This is another album that wouldn't be possible without the anonymous helper who has been sending me "Top of the Pops" BBC studio sessions. Being American, McLean mostly performed in the U.S. But he did sometimes perform concerts in Britain, and occasionally did something for the BBC while he was there. Tracks 1 through 3 and 5 through 8 all come from Top of the Pops sessions in 1972 and 1973. As far as I can tell, these are not only unreleased, but they haven't even been bootlegged anywhere. These are very different from the album versions as well. I surmise McLean was performing in a solo acoustic mode at the time, without any band. So all of these Top of the Pops performances are just his voice and his acoustic guitar.

However, those songs combined only made for 25 minutes of music. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the Top of the Pops radio show largely went to just playing the album versions around 1973, so it's not too surprising there aren't any more live versions of him on that show after that. But I looked around and found some more songs he did for the BBC, all BBC TV shows. Crucially, I found an unreleased version of "American Pie" from 1972, done for the "Sounds for Saturday" TV show. It also is just his voice and guitar. Tracks 9 through 11 come from BBC TV shows in 1978, and tracks 12 and 13 come from BBC TV shows in 1982. For all the songs done before an audience, I removed the clapping to make those songs fit in with the ones done without an audience.

Two of the songs from 1978, "Chain Lightning" and "Crying," come from a concert broadcast on BBC TV called "Don McLean and Friends." It also starred Elkie Brooks. If anyone has all of that one, I'd like to post that as a separate album (and remove the two songs from here). But although I didn't find that, I did find two other concerts he did that were broadcast for the BBC, so I'll post those here before long.

Thankfully, BBC DJ Brian Matthew restrained himself for once and didn't talk over the music to any of the Top of the Pops songs. That's probably due to the fact that Matthew finally rid himself of that bad habit around 1973. 

This album is 55 minutes long. Everything here is officially unreleased.

01 Vincent
02 What Can I Do for You 
03 Circus Song 
04 American Pie 
05 Everyday
06 Magdalene Lane
07 Mountains of Mourne 
08 And I Love You So 
09 When Love Begins 
10 Chain Lightning
11 Crying 
12 Crazy Eyes 
13 Castles in the Air