American Pie (Don McLean album) the feel of a "band that was really cooking," so he rented a rehearsal studio and they rehearsed the title song for two weeks before they recorded it. Because McLean rarely phrased his singing the same way twice there were as many as 24 takes for some of the voice parts, but the rhythm tracks are mostly one take. The title track contains references to the death of Buddy Holly (McLean being a 13-year-old paper-boy at the time). The phrase "The Day the Music Died" was used by McLean on this song, and has now become an unofficial name for
More Than I Can Say Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash in February 1959, a then-teenaged Vee was one of a group of local musicians recruited to play at the next leg of a scheduled concert in Fargo, North Dakota. In 1961, Vee (whose other hit singles include "Take Good Care of My Baby" and "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes") recorded "More Than I Can Say", and it reached No. 61 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. It was a bigger hit in the United Kingdom, where the song and its B-side, "Staying In", peaked at No.