A year before the explosion of his American Pie, Don McLean released his debut album Tapestry in 1970 and the song “And I Love You So,” which would be covered by Elvis Presley and Glen Campbell, and later become a No. 1 hit for Perry Cuomo.
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Tapestry—picked up by Mediaarts Records and later purchased by United Artists—also featured McLean’s debut single “Castles in the Air.”
The Meaning of “Castles in the Air”
The song reached No. 40 on the Billboard Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary chart and follows the story of a man who tires of living an urban life and wants to leave behind his “castle in the air” for country life—and love.
And if she asks you why, you can tell her that I told you
That I’m tired of castles in the air
I’ve got a dream I want the world to share
And castle walls just lead me to despair
Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky
A dream come true, I’ll live there ’til I die
I’m asking you to say my last goodbye
The love we knew ain’t worth another try
Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I’m weak but I can’t face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can’t remain
Perhaps she’ll understand if you tell it to her plain
But how can words express the feel of sunlight in the morning
In the hills, away from city strife
I need a country woman for my wife
I’m city born but I love the country life
“Castles in the Air” was one in a collection of songs McLean had written during his earlier days playing the folk circuit on the East Coast in the 1960s, often alongside his friend and mentor the late Pete Seeger.
1981 Rerelease
A decade after first releasing “Castles in the Air,” McLean rereleased the song on his 1981 album Believers.
“I went to Nashville after this ‘Chain Lightning’ album and made an album called ‘Believers,’ and the producer, Larry Butler—who has made a lot of great records with Kenny Rogers and all sorts of people, Johnny Cash,” said McLean in a1982 interview. “He heard that song [‘Castles in the Air’] from years ago and said ‘Please, would you do that one?'”
The 1981 version of “Castles in the Air” transformed from the more uptempo Tapestry rendition into a more mellowed ballad on Believers, and peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Preceding his grander American Pie release just one year later, McLean said the first few albums were his most exploratory era of songwriting.
“I worked hard at writing and reached a point where those albums of the 1970s,” said McLean. “The ‘Don McLean’ album, the ‘Tapestry’ album, ‘American Pie,’ ‘Homeless Brother’ and ‘Prime Time’— really found me in the groove, where I was really expressing myself and writing different kinds of songs.”
Photo: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
