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.