As my friends and neighbors were unlucky enough to find out last Friday night, American Pie is one of my favorite songs of all time (to sing. really loudly. while really drunk.) Mostly for its nostalgic qualities. It was big in my family (to sing. really loudly. while really drunk.).
Here's an interesting page that disects the American Pie lyrics. Here's another lyric annotation and FAQ. I didn't read to see if it was the same annotations. One time I read a very long one of these and it was fascination. Today, I don't have time. In fact, I got overwhelmed with just the first page of my American Pie Google search. Man(!), there's a lot of American Pie references on the web. There's probably going to be a lot more once Madonna's version comes out in February ("February made me shiver...") and its a big hit and interest is rekindled.