Bye, Bye: McLean Clears Up ‘American Pie’ Origins

Don McLean says “American Pie” was written in Philadelphia, not the upstate New York bar that has long laid claim to it.

The Post-Star of Glens Falls says the 66-year-old singer and songwriter tells the newspaper that contrary to local lore, he didn’t write the song on cocktail napkins at the Tin and Lint in Saratoga Springs. He also says the first time he performed the song wasn’t at Caffe Lena, a famous coffeehouse around the corner from the bar.

McLean says he wrote “American Pie” in Philadelphia and performed it for the first time at Temple University.

“American Pie” hit No. 1 in in late 1971.