Taylor Swift has sent Don McLean flowers and a sweet note after she smashed the Billboard Hot 100 record he held for 50 years.
The 31-year-old megastar recently dethroned the ‘American Pie’ hitmaker when she broke his record for the longest Number One on the US chart with the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ from ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’.
And the ‘Shake It Off’ hitmaker has since sent the 76-year-old music legend a gift after she knocked 1971 hit ‘American Pie’ off the top spot.
Don shared a picture with his floral gift and captioned the post on Twitter: “What a classy artist!
“Thank you @taylorswift13 for the flowers & note!”
The message from the ‘cardigan’ star read: “Don, I will never forget that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. Your music has been so important to me. Sending love [from] one writer of LONG SONGS to another. Your fan, Taylor.”
Don had recently congratulated Taylor and admitted he couldn’t have lost the No1 to a better artist.
He said: “There is something to be said for a great song that has staying power. ‘American Pie’ remained on the top for 50 years and now Taylor Swift has unseated such a historic piece of artistry.
“Let’s face it, nobody ever wants to lose that Number One spot, but if I had to lose it to somebody, I sure am glad it was another great singer/songwriter such as Taylor.”
Meanwhile, Don recently shared how he thinks Taylor should have hired a better lawyer.
The Grammy-winner decided to re-record her early albums after Scooter Braun purchased her former record label, Big Machine Label Group, for $300 million, and with it acquired the rights to her back catalogue before selling them on to Shamrock Holdings, and the Don highlighted the fact her situation shows the importance of “ironclad” paperwork and knowledgeable legal representation.
Asked his advice to new artists, Don said: “Get a good lawyer you can trust who knows contracts. I have a great one – I’ve used him for 40 years and my contracts are ironclad. That keeps me out of trouble.
“If Taylor Swift had always had the right representation, she would have been told that she didn’t actually own her own master tapes and she wouldn’t have had to go through re-recording her back catalogue in order to regain control of her original material.”
Don believes one of his smartest business decisions was trademarking various phrases that feature in the lyrics to his two biggest hits, ‘American Pie’ and ‘Vincent’.