This February 3rd marks the 50th anniversary of the “day the music died”.   I noted this on my Facebook status, stating that I was going to honor the date by memorizing the lyrics to “American Pie” by Madonna.

Several of my attentive friends were quick to point out that the Don Mclean version was better…I’m pretty sure that most of them knew I was kidding about the song being by Madonna (although you never know!).

In the process, my old Vineyard friend Mark Dillon mentioned a Brady Bunch version of “American Pie”, which I hadn’t heard….but thanks to the Internets, it’s now indelibly burned into my brain.

After a 10 second piano intro, the song inexplicably starts with the “Helter Skelter” verse and continues to the “Satan laughing with delight” verse, but completely edits out ALL of the other verses.  That’s right…no “A long, long time ago…”,  or “Did you write the book of love”, or even “I knew a girl who sang the blues”…perhaps they were left out because all of those verses have some reference to God (were the Brady’s Atheists?)

Complete with a power horn section, signature Brady harmonies and a mix that puts Greg’s baritone voice right out front, it is surely a wonder how this version never took off.  Perhaps if it had, Madonna would have never felt the need to make her own cover.  (As a side note, I think Madonna’s version is pretty much a reverse edit of the Brady version…perhaps I’ll dive deeper into that in the next few days).

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you “American Pie”, by Marsha, Jan, Cindy, Greg, Peter and Bobby….

YouTube – 70′s Music: “American Pie” – The Brady Bunch.