What was the song "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie" really about? What has it come to signify?

The song was inspired, first and foremost, by the deaths of musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P “The Big Bopper” Richardson in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959 – the “day the music died,” according to the song. (McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy at the time and mourned their deaths greatly.)

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