American Pie

'The American Pie' was the name of the aeroplane that crashed and killed Buddy Holly. That's what the first verse is about, 'the day the music died'

The song is certainly about the Buddy Holly/Richie Valens/Big Bopper plane crash, but nobody but nomad91 seems to know that American Pie was the name of the plane.

From snopes, the urban legend debunkers:

Did Buddy Holly really die in a plane called American Pie

The airplane, chartered through Dwyer's Flying Service in Clear Lake, Iowa, had no name. Its only designation was its wing registration number, N3794N. How the rumor that its name was American Pie (thus providing Don McLean the title for his song) started circulating is unknown, but it is undeniably false. As Don McLean himself <A HREF="http://web.archive.org/web/20021201144702/www.don-mclean.com/" TARGET=mclean>said</A> in 1999:
>The growing urban legend that "American Pie" was the name of Buddy Holly’s plane the night it crashed, killing him, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, is equally untrue. I created the term.

My bad, then. Guess I should check things like that first!