Don McLean Says Weird Al’s Cover of ‘American Pie’ Is ‘Better Than the Original’
There are exactly two types of music fans in America, and the easiest way to figure out which type you are is to complete the following lyric: “A long, long time ago…”
Despite the fact that parody is a protected form of free speech in these United States, the greatest parody artist in American history, Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic, makes a point to try to secure the blessing of every A-list artist whose biggest hits he satirizes. Over his nearly 50-year career, Weird Al has earned the approval of music industry titans such as Michael Jackson and Madonna, but, arguably, his biggest accomplishment might be how he didn’t just secure Don McLean’s permission to parody his iconic 1971 folk rock anthem “American Pie,” but he even convinced the songwriting legend that Buddy Holly was a lesser inspiration than Anakin Skywalker.
In a recent comment to Billboard for their cover story about Weird Al, McLean admitted that he thinks the musical comedian’s hit 1999 single “The Saga Begins” is the definitive rendition of “American Pie,” saying, “When I heard his version, I thought it was better than the original.”
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Now that’s something that no one has ever once said about The Phantom Menace.
As any comedy fan who had a Discman or a first-generation iPod during the early 2000s will recall, Weird Al’s “The Saga Begins” retells the events of the recently released and widely mocked Star Wars prequel film The Phantom Menace from the point-of-view of Obi-Wan Kenobi, replacing the iconic lyric “Bye bye Miss American Pie” with “My, my, this here Anakin guy.”
But while Weird Al’s lyrical prowess is typically the selling point of his music, McLean has a more sonic reason for preferring “The Saga Begins” to his own “American Pie.” Said McLean, “The sound quality was superb,” then calling Weird Al a “straight-ahead good boy” who “could be on Leave It to Beaver.”
This isn’t the first time that McLean has expressed his preference for “The Saga Begins,” at least, not according to Weird Al himself. In a 2006 interview, Weird Al claimed to have spoken to McLean since “The Saga Begins” became a massive hit, saying, “I talked to Don on the phone before the tour started, and he seemed to like the parody very much. However, he says that his kids listen to RWS (Weird Al’s album Running with Scissors) around the house a lot, so now when he’s doing ‘American Pie’ in concert, the lyrics to my song keep creeping into his brain.”
“He also told me that around the same time he approved my parody, he turned down a request from Coolio to use an ‘American Pie’ sample,” Weird Al reported, referencing the rapper who famously refused to allow Weird Al to parody his hit single “Gangsta’s Paradise” before his record company gave Weird Al the go-ahead anyways. “Great, another reason for him to hate me,” Weird Al said of the formerly aggrieved artist.
Now that McLean has given Weird Al the greatest compliment a massively successful musician can give to their parodist, it”s time to ask ourselves which other Weird Al songs are superior to the originals. To start, why don”t we complete the lyric, “We been spending most our lives…”
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