Since its release in 1971, Don McLean’s epic, eight-and-a-half-minute song “American Pie” has become an enduring part of American culture. It’s sold millions of copies, been covered by multiple different artists, and was even the subject of a 2022 Paramount+ documentary called The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s American Pie. (It also held the record for being the longest song to reach No. 1 for almost 50 years before Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” broke the record in 2021.)
In 2000, the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna, recorded her own version of the song to promote the soundtrack to her movie The Next Best Thing, co-starring Rupert Everett.
The film is about a single yoga instructor named Abbie (Madonna), who decides to raise a child with her gay best friend, Robert (Everett). When their friendship falls apart, a bitter custody battle ensues. And in the end, nobody is happy.
Despite opening at #2 at the box office, The Next Best Thing was panned by critics and ultimately failed to earn back its $25 million budget. Everett later said it was responsible for killing both his acting career and his friendship with Madonna, who he had been close with prior to filming.
“We don’t see each other anymore,” he told The Telegraph’s Stellar Magazine in 2020, adding that she’s “an amazing person and that part of my life was incredibly exciting. To be doing a film with her, and to be a friend of hers, and to have been such a fan of hers. But the fallout from the movie’s failure was gigantic for me, like an outer-space explosion.”
Perhaps the only positive thing to come out of the ill-fated project was its soundtrack, which Madonna executive produced. She handpicked all 12 songs, contributing two of her own: an original ballad called “Time Stood Still” and an electronic version of McLean’s 1971 hit, which Everett reportedly convinced her to records.
