 singer-songwriter Don McLean got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, marking the 50th anniversary of his classic single American Pie. McLean, who is 75 years of age, recalled how the almost nine-minute-long song about the loss of innocence in the rock generation had come to define his career and be sung at key moments in United States cultural life. McLean's star was the 2,700th on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was placed strategically outside the piehole shop on Hollywood Boulevard. American Pie was released in October of 1971, spent weeks on the charts in the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK. American Pie makes numerous cryptical cultural allusions to 1960s figures ranging from Elvis to Bob Dylan. The lyrics were sold at auction in New York in 2015 for $1.2 million and McLean wrote in notes for the auction sale catalogue that the song was about life heading in the wrong direction and becoming less idyllic.