Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, New York City, 1-25-1982

Here's the sixth and presumably final Don McLean BBC album I plan on posting. (If I find more, I'll be happy to post them, but I'm very surprised to find this much.) Out of the five album concerts in this series, this is one of the best, if not the best. The sound quality is excellent, and the song selection represents his career well. 

The only problem is "American Pie" isn't included. He probably played it in the full concert, but just didn't include it in the edit down to fit the hour long time slot. It seems he was sick of the song by this time, just as he'd only included a very short version in his 1978 BBC TV special (which is Volume 5 in this series).

This was first broadcast in the U.S. as part of the King Biscuit Flower Power radio program. However, it was later broadcast by the BBC, and more than once. That makes it a BBC concert in my book. Some purists may disagree, but note that I probably wouldn't be posting this otherwise. Unfortunately, I don't know the location of the venue, other that it took place somewhere in New York City. So if anyone does know, please tell me so I can change the title.

McLean's prime period of commercial success lasted from 1971 until 1981. After having no hits in the late 1970s, he had a revival, with "Crying" a big hit in 1980, as well as the Top Forty hits "Since I Don't Have You" and "Castles in the Air" in 1981. So this was a particularly good time for a concert recording like this, especially since he performed all three of those songs.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 He's Got You [She's Got You] (Don McLean)
02 talk (Don McLean)
03 Vincent (Don McLean)
04 Orphans of Wealth (Don McLean)
05 talk (Don McLean)
06 Tapestry (Don McLean)
07 Castles in the Air (Don McLean)
08 Crying (Don McLean)
09 Since I Don't Have You (Don McLean)
10 Jerusalem (Don McLean)
11 Believers (Don McLean)
12 It Doesn't Matter Anymore (Don McLean)
13 talk (Don McLean)
14 Banjo Pickin' [Instrumental] (Don McLean)
15 talk (Don McLean)
16 Under the Double Eagle - Salt Creek [Instrumental] (Don McLean)
17 talk (Don McLean)
18 Building My Body (Don McLean) (Don McLean)
19 Wonderful Baby (Don McLean) (Don McLean) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RppwkaWf 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/iKISTncc5G1BAug/file 

The cover photo is from a concert at Park West in Chicago, IL, on April 11, 1981.

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Don McLean and Friends, Pebble Mill Studios, Birmingham, Britain, 12-26-1978

Here's another BBC album by singer-songwriter Don McLean. This one is the music from a 1978 TV special called "Don McLean and Friends." The friends are Elkie Brooks and the vocal harmony band the Jordanaires.

When I started looking for McLean's BBC material some weeks back, I was surprised how much came up. I'm particularly surprised the BBC gave him this special in 1978. Although he put out an album that year that reached the Top Twenty in Britain ("Chain Lightning"), he didn't have any hit singles that year, or any other year since 1973. He would have a big comeback in 1980 with his cover of "Crying," which would hit Number One in Britain, but of course that wasn't known yet in 1978. Anyway, kudos to the BBC for giving him this special. 

McLean had two guests. Elkie Brooks became a big star in 1977, and was arguably more commercially successful than McLean at the time of this special. She sang two of her recent hits, "Don't Cry Out Loud" and "Lilac Wine." The Jordanaires were a vocal quartet formed in 1948. They put out a lot of their own music, especially gospel albums. However, they were better known for being backup singers, especially for Elvis Presley. They backed him extensively in recordings, concerts, and films from the 1950s to the 1970s. So it's fitting that they sang a medley of Presley classics here, as well as backing McLean on some of his songs.

One slightly frustrating thing about this concert is that while McLean is best known for his classic hit "American Pie," it seems he'd grown tired of it by the time of this concert. He only performed a short version of it, which lasts less than three minutes, instead of the well-known seven minute version.

This album was very hard for me to find. I don't think it has existed as an audio bootleg. I found a YouTube video of it, and concerted that to audio format, then broke it into mp3s. The sound quality is very good. 

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 American Pie [Short Version] (Don McLean)
02 And I Love You So (Don McLean)
03 talk (Don McLean)
04 Lotta Lovin' (Don McLean)
05 talk (Don McLean)
06 Blue Suede Shoes - All Shook Up - Loving You - Don't Be Cruel - Hound Dog (Jordanaires)
07 talk (Don McLean)
08 Genesis (Don McLean)
09 Crying (Don McLean)
10 Don't Cry Out Loud (Elkie Brooks)
11 Lilac Wine (Elkie Brooks)
12 talk (Don McLean)
13 Words and Music (Don McLean)
14 Chain Lightning (Don McLean)
15 It's Just the Sun (Don McLean)
16 Vincent (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uBpiHs7d

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/XYY0Z9lM8WSNAHj/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. 

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 10-15-1973

Here's another album of singer-songwriter Don McLean performing for the BBC. This time, it's another acoustic concert, just like "Volume 2" was.

If you look at the BBC website, there's a page for this concert that shows a 45 minute concert. This is not that. Unfortunately, that link is dead and probably has been for years. However, I was able to cobble together enough for an album from other sources. No doubt there's a lot of overlap with that BBC broadcast, but it's possible some songs here are from the part of a longer concert that didn't make the 45 minute broadcast version.

Beware, because the sound quality varies a lot, due to different sourcing. The best sounding songs are tracks 6, 7, and 8. These are the only officially released ones, from the archival collection "Favorites and Rarities." Of the rest, a couple of the songs came from YouTube. Those have the poorest quality. But most of the rest came from a Don McLean super fan, who sent me some mp3 files downloaded off McLean's official website years ago. They have since been taken down, so that was a really fortunate save.

The same month this concert took place, McLean released the studio album "Playin' Favorites." Up until that point, his albums consisted of original songs, but this album was entirely made up of cover versions. One of them is included here, "Mountains O' Mourne." But he also played a couple of covers he didn't put on album at the time, "And Her Mother Came Too" and "Yonkers Girl."

Hopefully someday the BBC will rebroadcast this show, as they sometimes do and/or someone else will step forward who recorded it. In the meantime, this version will have to suffice. I have no idea about the song order, since this came from different sources and I couldn't find a definitive set list. So I just made up an order. 

This album is 37 minutes long. 

01 Winterwood (Don McLean)
02 Great Big Man (Don McLean)
03 Respectable (Don McLean)
04 Over the Waterfall - Babylon (Don McLean)
05 talk (Don McLean)
06 Mountains O' Mourne (Don McLean)
07 And Her Mother Came Too (Don McLean)
08 Yonkers Girl (Don McLean)
09 American Pie (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cVPzm19P

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/atmgXGg9uwYdHdU/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Sounds for Saturday, London, Britain, 7-29-1972

A few weeks ago (writing this in June 2025), I posted a different "Volume 2" for Don McLean's BBC sessions, which was a concert from 1975. I have since found two more BBC concerts he did. So here's a brand new "Volume 2," a concert from 1972. I'll be posting another concert from 1973 as "Volume 3," and renaming that 1975 concert as "Volume 4." Sorry about the numbering confusion, but the bottom line is there's more good music to hear from Don McLean.

These newly discovered concerts are thanks to a Don McLean super fan who contacted me with the missing material I was looking for. That person also came up with a couple of extra songs I'd missed for "Volume 1," as well as three songs I'd missed for the 1975 concert that now makes up "Volume 4." I also removed a couple of songs from "Volume 1" because those exact versions are now on one of these extra full concerts I'm posting. So if you're a fan, I strongly suggest re-downloading those. Here are the links to the updated versions.

Volume 1: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/05/don-mclean-bbc-sessions-volume-1-1972.html

Volume 4: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/06/don-mclean-bbc-sessions-volume-2-in.html

"Volume 3" will be posted soon. Then there are two more volumes coming after that. So there's a bumper crop of Don McLean music on the way.

Okay, with all that explained, let me focus on this album. In 1972, McLean was probably at the peak of his popularity, thanks to the huge success of the hits "American Pie" and "Vincent." So we have this BBC concert, done in a solo acoustic format. It includes those two songs, plus other classics like "Empty Chairs" and "Castles in the Air." I don't know the name of song I've called "Turkey in the Straw Medley." I only know "Turkey in the Straw" is part of it. If anyone knows the other parts of the medley, please let me know. 

All the songs are unreleased except for "Everyday." That comes from the archival album "Favorites and Rarities." It turns out there's a 50-minute version of this concert as well. In fact, one can find the audio of it on YouTube (though it's poorly labeled). But there's a flaw with the sound all the way through that makes that version unusable for me. However, from that version I was able to find out that "Everyday" was the last song performed, so I was able to put it in its proper place. If anyone has the longer version with good sound quality, please let me know. 

This album is 38 minutes long. 

01 Magdalene Lane (Don McLean)
02 Empty Chairs (Don McLean)
03 And Her Mother Came Too (Don McLean)
04 She Was Poor but She Was Honest (Don McLean)
05 talk (Don McLean)
06 Turkey in the Straw Medley [Instrumental] (Don McLean)
07 Castles in the Air (Don McLean)
08 talk (Don McLean)
09 Where Were You, Baby (Don McLean)
10 American Pie (Don McLean)
11 Vincent (Don McLean)
12 Everyday (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/z8Sgzaov

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Ws2YqaNxaCiFd3Y/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Hard Rock Club, Manchester, Britain, 7-26-1975

I got a request today to post more of Don McLean's BBC stuff. I had one ready to go, so here it is. It's a short concert from 1975.

1975 was kind of an odd time for the BBC to want to broadcast a Don McLean concert. He'd had two huge hits in 1972 ("American Pie" and "Vincent") and two smaller ones in 1973 ("Dreidel" and "If We Try"), but then no more through the time of this concert. In fact, he didn't even release a new album in 1975. His previous album was "Homeless Brother" in 1974. He did have one very minor hit with the song "Wonderful Baby" from that album, but that isn't included here. However, some of the other songs are from that album, like "La La Love You," "Homeless Brother," and "The Legend of Andrew McGrew."

This is a solo acoustic concert, just McLean and his guitar. It also is fully unreleased.

This album is 48 minutes long.

UPDATE: On June 14, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file for this album. For one thing, I changed the name of the album from "Volume 2" to "Volume 4" after discovering two more BBC concerts I'd previously missed. I also added three songs I'd missed, "Banjo Instrumental," "Over the Mountains," and "Masters of War." 

01 talk (Don McLean)
02 Bronco Bill's Lament (Don McLean)
03 Empty Chairs (Don McLean)
04 La La Love You (Don McLean)
05 American Pie (Don McLean)
06 talk (Don McLean)
07 Homeless Brother (Don McLean)
08 Respectable (Don McLean)
09 Over the Waterfall - Arkansas Traveller [Instrumental] (Don McLean)
10 Over the Mountains (Don McLean)
11 Masters of War (Don McLean)
12 talk (Don McLean)
13 The Legend of Andrew McGrew (Don McLean)
14 Babylon (Don McLean)
15 This Little Light of Mine (Don McLean)
16 Vincent (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2pVCWnzd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/rlAsPaYpjsvqSSz/file

The cover photo shows Don McLean at the Grand Gala in Amsterdam, Netherlands on February 15, 1974.

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1972-1982

American singer-songwriter Don McLean is best known for his classic 1971 song "American Pie," but he's much, much more than that. That was such a massive Number One hit that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America" took a poll of music industry insiders in 2001 and voted it Number Five on a list of the most historically significant songs of the 20th century. That song has overshadowed the fact that McLean has had quite a successful music career even without it, including the hits "Vincent," "Castles in the Air," "Dreidel," and "Crying." 

This is another album that wouldn't be possible without the anonymous helper who has been sending me "Top of the Pops" BBC studio sessions. Being American, McLean mostly performed in the U.S. But he did sometimes perform concerts in Britain, and occasionally did something for the BBC while he was there. Tracks 1 through 5, plus 7 and 8 all come from Top of the Pops sessions in 1972 and 1973. As far as I can tell, these are not only unreleased, but they haven't even been bootlegged anywhere. These are very different from the album versions as well. I surmise McLean was performing in a solo acoustic mode at the time, without any band. So all of these Top of the Pops performances are just his voice and his acoustic guitar.

However, those songs combined only made for 25 minutes of music. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the Top of the Pops radio show largely went to just playing the album versions around 1973, so it's not too surprising there aren't any more live versions of him on that show after that. But I looked around and found some more songs he did for the BBC, all BBC TV shows. Tracks 6 and 7 are from an appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973. Track 10 is from another BBC TV shows in 1973. Track 11 is from a BBC TV show in 1978. Tracks 12 and 13 come from BBC TV shows in 1982. For all the songs done before an audience, I removed the clapping to make those songs fit in with the ones done without an audience.

Thankfully, BBC DJ Brian Matthew restrained himself for once and didn't talk over the music to any of the Top of the Pops songs. That's probably due to the fact that Matthew finally rid himself of that bad habit around 1973. 

There's one bonus track, "Mountains of Mourne." There's nothing wrong with it; it's just that I had another version from the Top of the Pops show. Actually, I found yet another version, from the Old Grey Whistle Test, but I figured two versions of the same song as bonus tracks was overkill, so I only included one.

This album is 42 minutes long, not including the bonus track. Everything here is officially unreleased.

UPDATE: On June 14, 2025, I removed a couple of songs and added some songs. I removed some songs because they were from a BBC show in which I later found and posted the full show. But I managed to find some more songs that I'd previously missed to more or less make up the loss.

01 Vincent (Don McLean)
02 What Can I Do for You (Don McLean)
03 Circus Song (Don McLean)
04 Everyday (Don McLean)
05 Magdalene Lane (Don McLean)
06 talk (Don McLean)
07 Yonkers Girl (Don McLean)
08 Mountains of Mourne (Don McLean)
09 And I Love You So (Don McLean)
10 Fool’s Paradise (Don McLean)
11 When Love Begins (Don McLean)
12 Crazy Eyes (Don McLean)
13 Castles in the Air (Don McLean)

Mountains of Mourne (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kcTnQ9Xz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NRz6Onu6KIrLE0g/file

I don't know much about the cover photo except it was taken at a BBC performance in 1972.