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
Eddie Cochran on "Summertime Blues". The recordings were issued on the album "A Gene Vincent Record Date". In early 1959 two of Cochran's friends, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, along with the Big Bopper, were killed in a plane crash while on tour. Cochran's friends and family later said that he was badly shaken by their deaths, and he developed a morbid premonition that he also would die young. It was shortly after their deaths that he recorded a song (written by disc jockey Tommy Dee) in tribute to them, "Three Stars". He was anxious to give up life on the road