Don McLean Song Statistics

Titles

Titles that do not appear in the lyrics (where lyrics exist)
Bad Girl                                            No Reason For Your Dreams
Believers                                          Respectable
Bronco Bill's Lament                        The Carnival Has Ended*
Burgundian Carol*                           The Legend Of Andrew McCrew
Circus Song                                     The Statue
Crossroads                                      The Touch Of Her Hand*
General Store                                  Yonkers Girl*
Mountains O' Mourne                       You Can't Blame The Train*
Muleskinner Blues*

Songs with subtitles / alternative titles
A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)*
Baby I Don't Care (You're So Square)*
Genesis (In The Beginning)
I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)*
Siamese Twins (Joined At The Heart)
Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)*
Tangled (Like A Spider In Her Hair)
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)*
The More You Pay (The More It's Worth)
Vincent (Starry Starry Night)

Shortest song titles
One word titles:
1967               Don't*              Infinity              Tangled
Aftermath        Dreidel            Jerusalem        Tapestry
Babylon*         Dubuque*       Jump                Toyland*
Believers         Eventually*     Narcisissma     Vincent
Crazy*             Everyday*      Redwing           Winterwood
Crossroads     Genesis          Respectable
Crying*            Headroom      Stardust*
Two word titles:
American Pie         Don't Worry*         Love Me*                 Silent Night*
Ancient History*     Dream Lover*       Lovesick Blues*       Sister Fatima
Angry Words          El Paso*               Magdalene Lane      Superman's Ghost
Bad Girl                 Empty Chairs        Maybe Baby*           The Grave
Better Still              Fashion Victim      Milkman's Matinée   The Statue
Birthday Song        Fool's Paradise*   Mother Nature         Till Tomorrow
Blue Christmas*     General Store       Muleskinner Blues   Travelin' Man*
Blues Train            Happy Trails*        Nature Boy*             White Christmas*
Burgundian Carol* Homeless Brother Perfect Love            Winter Wonderland*
But Beautiful*         Kaw Liga*             Planet Noise            Wonderful Baby
Chain Lightning*    L'Affaire D'Amour* Pretty Paper*           Wonderful Night
Change Partners* Little Child            Profiteering Blues    Wonderful World*
Christmas Waltz*   Little Cowboy        Prime Time              Yonkers Girl*
Circus Song           Lotta Lovin'*         Sea Cruise*
Crazy Eyes            Love Hurts*          Sea Man
Devil Woman*        Love Letters*       Siamese Twins

Longest song titles (not including subtitles / medleys):
Eight words:
Left For Dead On The Road Of Love
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out*
Seven words:
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day*
You Got A Way About You, Baby
Six words:
Go Tell It On The Mountain
If I Only Had A Match*
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear*
It Was A Very Good Year*
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town*
Sitting On Top Of The World*
The Last Month Of The Year*
What Will The World Be Like
When A Good Thing Goes Bad
Winter Has Me In Its Grip

Albums named after songs contained therein
American Pie (1st track)
Believers (4th track)
Chain Lightning (5th track)
Headroom (1st track)
Homeless Brother (3rd track)
Prime Time (1st track)
Tapestry (4th track)
The River Of Love (1st track)

Content

People / Organisations
Real:
Abraham Lincoln (Magdalene Lane, Fashion Victim)
Buck Jones (1967)
Andrew McCrew- really Anderson McCrew (The Legend of Andrew McCrew)
Clark Gable (Magdalene Lane)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Fashion Victim)
General Motors (Color TV Blues)
George Reeves (Superman's Ghost)
James Dean (American Pie)
Jesse James (Respectable)
Jesus (Homeless Brother, Jump, Believers)
Knights of Columbus (Color TV Blues)
Lenin (American Pie)
Martin Luther King Jr. (Fashion Victim)
Marx (American Pie)
Mary Mild (Everybody Loves Me Baby)
Mohammed (Believers)
Oscar Wilde (Everybody Loves Me Baby)
Paul Revere (Magdalene Lane)
Renoir (Three Flights Up)
Roy Rogers (1967)
SIgmund Freud (Color TV Blues, Superman's Ghost)
The CIA (Color TV Blues)
The Pope (Color TV Blues)
Thomas Jefferson (Fashion Victim)
Vincent van Gogh (Vincent)
Imaginary:
Amos and Andy (Magdalene Lane)
Bronco Bill (Bronco Bill's Lament)
Buddy Joe (1967)
Devil Woman (Devil Woman*)
Elvira (Circus Song)
Felina (El Paso*)
Jack Flash (American Pie)
Miss American Pie (American Pie)
Mrs Campbell (General Store)
Sister Fatima (Sister Fatima)
The Fruitman of Freeway (Magdalene Lane)
The Good Witch, Dorothy, the wizard, Aunt Em, the tin man (Magdalene Lane)

Places
Real:
America (Prime Time, Orphans of Wealth, Have You Seen Me, American Pie) Babylon (Babylon*)
Biloxi (Narcissima)
Chicago (Sea Man)
Dublin (Molly Malone*)
Kansas (Magdalene Lane)
MGM Studios (Magdalene Lane)
Mountains O' Mourne (Mountains O' Mourne*)
Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Africa (Have You Seen Me)
Polynesia, Waikiki, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Alaska, Berlin (Travelin' Man)
San Francisco (I Want Her)
Siam/Thailand (Siamese Twins)
The Capitol Hill (Headroom)
Tulsa (Tulsa Time / Deep In The Heart Of Texas*)
Texas (Tulsa Time / Deep In The Heart Of Texas*)
Yankee Stadium (Color TV Blues)
Zion (Babylon*)
Imaginary
Magdalene Lane (Magdalene Lane)

Events:
The Great Civil War (Magdalene Lane)
The Vietnam War (1967)
Yankee Stadium was owned by the Knights of Columbus (Color TV Blues)
The death of Vincent van Gogh (Vincent)

Animals:
Dogs:
"And a dog that thinks I'm smart", Love In My Heart*
"Somewhere the dogs are barking", Homeless Brother
Horses, ponies:
"And he makes that pony fly", Little Cowboy
"And out she came, a snow-white mare", The More You Pay
"Everyone's caught on a carousel pony", Circus Song
"Owned my saddle and my horse", Bronco Bill's Lament
"Roy Rogers, he was on his horse", 1967
"White silk horses step in time", Circus Song
"You're a dark horse hunch", One In A Row
Other:
"A big stuffed tiger's what I bought her", Circus Song
"And eagles flew from craggy peaks above the garden wall", Genesis
"And perfect was their paradise, unto the serpent at their feet", Genesis
"Black crows in the summer sky", You Who Love The Truth
"Even the seagulls are happy", Devil Woman*
"Every fish that swims silent, Every bird that flies freely, Every doe that steps softly", Tapestry
"I'm ridin' on my pony, I'm lettin' out my rope", Jump
"I'm tangled like a spider in her hair", Tangled
"Like being on a cookout with a crazy kangaroo", Jump
"Like gypsy moths that dance around the candle flame", Empty Chairs
"She can tame a lion you know", Circus Song
"The birds like leaves on winterwood", Winterwood
"The fish that were dead were too poisoned to eat", Sea Man
"The phoenix can rise from the smouldering ashes that once were my eyes", Chain Lightning
"Where the sweet fish come and go" (Birthday Song)
"White doves sing their songs of love", Till Tomorrow
"With roaches and rickets, and rats in the thickets", Orphans of Wealth

Comestibles and beverages:
"And the chestnut stand...", Bad Girl
"And with weatherworn hands, on breadlines they stand...", Orphans of Wealth
"Cockles and mussels, alive alive-oh!", Molly Malone*
"Cotton candy, two for a quarter", Circus Song
"Every milk carton...", Have You Seen Me
"I will not be part of the cocktail generation", Castles In The Air
"Like sugar crystals on a spoon, they disappear from sight", Aftermath
"The land of hamburgers and raisins that can sing", Fashion Victim
"They shot him in the chest- pass the chicken breast", Prime Time

Style

Songs without choruses or repeated lyrical segments
Aftermath                                             Nature Boy*
Circus Song                                         Sea Man
Crying In The Chapel*                         Sister Fatima
Color TV Blues                                    Tapestry
El Paso*                                              Three Flights Up
General Store                                      Till Tomorrow
Genesis                                               'Twas The Night Before Christmas*
Mactavish Is Dead*                              When Love Begins
Magdalene Lane                                  Where Were You Baby*
Masters Of War*                                  Yonkers Girl*

Biblical or religious references may be found in
Aftermath                                         Homeless Brother
American Pie                                   Jerusalem
Babylon                                           Jump
Believers                                          Little Child
Better Still                                        Magdalene Lane
Bronco Bill's Lament                        O Holy Night*
Color TV Blues                                O Little Town Of Bethlehem*
Crying In The Chapel*                     Silent Night*
Everybody Loves Me Baby              Sister Fatima
Genesis                                           The Carnival Has Ended*
Go Tell It On The Mountain*           This Little Light*
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen*      Three Flights Up
Homeless Brother

Songs sung in second person (usually only partially)
Homeless Brother
Respectable
The Pride Parade
You Don't Know Me*
You Have Lived

Songs sung in foreign languages
Lloras ("Tears"- Crying in Spanish)
Yo Soy, Tu Eres ("I Am, You Are"- It's Just The Sun in Spanish)

Songs sung a cappella
Crying In The Chapel*
Geordie's Lost His Penker*
Love O Love*
Nature Boy*
Sea Man
Stardust*
The Statue
NB. Strings aren't real instruments! :o)

Track length
NB. Where there are different versions (including remakes and live renditions) only the shortest/longest respectively is shown.

Shortest tracks
Planet Noise (0:19)
Mactavish Is Dead (0:20)
Happy Trails - Solo version (0:27)
Turkey In The Straw (0:36)
Dubuque (0:47)
Love O Love (0:53)
Nature Boy (1:05)
Redwing (1:10)
Babylon (1:40)

Longest tracks
American Pie - version 2: (8:52)
Chain Lightning - Dominion version (7:49)
Mother Nature (6:56)
Believers (6:10)
Three Flights Up (5:41)
The Legend Of Andrew McCrew (5:59)
Babylon - Solo version (5:58)
The Carnival Has Ended (5:37)
El Paso* (5:30)
Superman's Ghost (5:26)
(PS. Completely discounts the Starry Starry Night live album: Don talks so much that the song lengths are blown horrendously out of proportion- thanks to Pedantic Phil for spotting the spelling errors here!)