What's in a Name? Day the Music Died

by Andrea Branchini

DAY THE MUSIC DIED (g, 5, Maclean's Music–Kelly's Question, by Mr. Greeley) Laurel Park, 1-31, Alw, 6f, 1:10.95.
O-Electric Rooster Racing Stable, LLC; B-R. Larry Johnson (MD).

The recent Laurel winner Day the Music Died is poetry in motion, literally. Don McLean is the author of the 1971 song and world hit “American Pie,” whose most famous and often repeated verse is the refrain line “the day the music died.” The song is supposedly about the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll performers Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.

The first refrain goes like this:

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died

An ingenious name. A little esoteric, but not too much.

An Italian native, Andrea Branchini now lives in Lexington, Ky. where he works in the equine transport industry.