Starry, Starry Night

Johnnie Walker is joined by Don McLean, who recently collected a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Best known for his hit singles Vincent and American Pie, Don Mclean has been making music and delighting audiences for over forty years. Hailing from New York, he got his breakthrough with the 1971 album American Pie, which features his magnum opus of the same name.

Together he and Johnnie talk about the difficulty in releasing his debut album, refusing to compromise artistically (sometimes to the detriment of his career), his diverse musical influences and how his newfound fame affected him in the 1970s.

Also on the show, listener Terence Simpson rolls back the years with his musical memories in My 70s. Plus, Johnnie features the prog epic 2112 by Rush as his Featured Album, widely regarded to mark the beginning of the Canadian band's golden era.