Song View

Madonna's cover of "American Pie" was the lead single from the soundtrack to her film "The Next Best Thing", in which she starred alongside Rupert Everett. The version is a dance-pop rework, significantly shortened from Don McLean's original 8,5 minutes runtime to 4,5, omitting much of the content. Madonna viewed it as a "millennium song" symbolizing changes in pop culture due to the Internet, like saying goodbye to music as known before.
Originally, songwriter Don McLean meant by "the day the music died" the 1959 plane crash killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.