Featured on the film soundtrack The Next Best Thing, Madonna's interpretation has rocketed up the pop charts, resulted in a hit video and helped revive interest in McLean's magnum opus. Now, in an ironic turn of events, McLean's somber paean to innocence lost has been updated by Madonna, the controversial singer who's made a career of artfully testing the limits of decency. The song topped the pop charts for four weeks in 1971 and has since become as much a part of U.S. cynicism and eulogizing late rock pioneers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper has achieved mythic status. Titled 'American Pie,' McLean's tune lamenting U.S. Thirty years ago, singer/songwriter Don McLean accomplished what every artist dreams of: He composed a masterpiece.
