Don McLean label for his second album, "American Pie." The album launched two number one hits in the title song and "Vincent". "American Pie"'s success made McLean an international star and piqued interest in his first album, which charted more than two years after its initial release. McLean's magnum opus, "American Pie", is a sprawling, impressionistic ballad inspired partly by the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) in a plane crash in 1959, and developments in American youth culture in the subsequent decade. The song popularized the expression "The Day the Music Died" in reference to
Everyday (Buddy Holly song) his album "Gunfight at Carnegie Hall" in 1974. Elliott Murphy recorded this song for a French tribute, "Every Day Is a Holly Day", in 1989. In 1990, the British guitarist Peter White recorded it for the album "Reveillez-Vous". Fiona Apple recorded a cover version for the Buddy Holly tribute album "Rave On Buddy Holly" in 2011. Patrick Stump contributed a cover version to the Buddy Holly tribute album "" in 2011. The song is also on the 2012 Japanese CD "Levi Dexter & Gretsch Brothers", featuring Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductee Levi Dexter. In 2016, the Canadian singer-songwriter Jordan Paul