Spencer Proffer was a student at UCLA, just beginning law school, when he first heard Don McLean’s “American Pie” on the radio.
About three minutes into the song, he pulled over. The song kept going, and Proffer kept listening. McLean, he remembers thinking, sounded like “an old soul in a young body.” Proffer, himself a musician and songwriter, had another thought that stayed with him.
“If I could ever bring the spirit of this song to life when I’m older, I will,” Proffer remembers telling himself. More than five decades later, he got the chance.
Proffer produced “The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s ‘American Pie,’” a documentary that takes apart the song that experiencing once brought him to a stop — its origins, its recording, the experiences behind McLean’s writing and the life the song has taken on since its 1971 release.
“It’s not a doc on Don McLean’s life,” Proffer said. “It’s the journey of the song, past, present and future.”
The future matters to Proffer because he hears something hopeful in a song built from loss. “American Pie” begins with the Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.
McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy when he learned of the crash, and Holly was one of his musical heroes. Two years later, McLean’s father died suddenly.
The song eventually reached well beyond those losses, touching on the cultural changes McLean saw around him. But Proffer believes its staying power comes in part from its ability to look forward.
“The song actually gave us hope,” he said. “It really rang my bell as to future hope, and I wanted to make something that could speak to the next generation because I thought the themes were timeless.”
That idea presented Proffer with an interesting contradiction to explore. “American Pie” moves through death, loss and disillusionment, yet over more than half a century it has also become something people sing together.
“It’s like a campfire song,” Proffer has said. “Everyone is invited to sing.”
Its familiarity can obscure just how unusual the record was. “American Pie” runs about 8½ minutes, forcing the original single to be divided between two sides of a record. Its arrangement evolved in the studio, with pianist Paul Griffin helping shape its gospel-tinged, increasingly buoyant sound. And then there were McLean’s words.
The images and references packed into the verses have generated decades of speculation about whom and what McLean was describing. The documentary explores those lyrics with McLean himself, while placing them alongside the personal and cultural events surrounding the song.
Getting closer to McLean elevated the project for Proffer but did not change its direction.
“Not different, deeper,” Proffer said. “What changed was when I got to know Don and I really understood he was a true poet and a very deep-feeling human being beyond a commercial artist. I really got very excited and motivated to go deeper and deeper into the history of the song, his writing process, and how it’s affected and impacted people around the world.”
That deeper dive has typified this stage of Proffer’s career. He spent decades making records before increasingly turning his attention to films about music.
His production credits include work with Tina Turner, Quiet Riot and Little River Band. His documentary work has included “Chasing Trane,” about John Coltrane, and “Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback,” about the television special that helped revive Elvis Presley’s career.
The common thread is less the artists themselves than what Proffer believes can be found by looking behind their music.
“I’m following the art and the art is the story,” he told Forbes in 2020.
With “American Pie,” that meant looking beyond the uncertainty of individual lyrics. Proffer calls the film a “sociological study” because he sees the song as inseparable from the period in which McLean wrote it. But he doesn't believe it belongs only to that period.
“We need to be hopeful for the future,” Proffer said. “I think that song will last as long as it has, for 50 years, because there’s hope. And we want to make the future better than the past.”
Proffer hopes that is the experience audiences have as they see the film. He said he wants people to leave remembering not only a familiar song but the way it has brought people together.
The producer has reached beyond the film industry to share the themes expressed in “American Pie” to the younger generation.
McLean’s iconic No. 1 song created a timely cultural connection between music and American history, bringing generations together. Working with UNICEF USA, Proffer also transformed this cultural message to support children, their emotional well-being, education and ability to feel connected to the world around them.
The children’s book “Fable,” alongside the song, tells the story of a young boy struggling with feelings of loneliness who discovers the extraordinary power of music. Through experiencing the connection music creates, he begins to find his way beyond isolation and toward friendship, belonging and hope.
“Fable” speaks to the theme that every child deserves the opportunity not only to survive, but to feel seen, supported and connected, and to have the tools and opportunities they need to thrive. The story was brought to life in an audio edition narrated by acclaimed actor Peter Gallagher and available on Audible.
Proffer has a very personal connection to the upcoming sharing of his work. He spent part of his childhood in New Mexico after his Polish parents immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. The only people they knew in the country were in Albuquerque, so the family settled in New Mexico before later moving to Los Angeles.
Now he is coming back with a film about a song that caught his attention as a young man and stayed with him through a career spent making and, eventually, telling stories about music.
“I’m looking forward to coming back,” Proffer said. “That’s where I am at this point in my life.”
