Don McLean’s American Pie lyrics have sold for $1.2 million at a New York auction.

The 16-page original manuscript had been expected to fetch as much as $1.5 million at the Christie’s sale.

Don McLean, 69, had hinted in February the original manuscript would reveal the song’s lyrical meaning – which had always been kept a mystery.

“The writing and the lyrics will divulge everything there is to divulge,” he said.

Don McLean previously acknowledged the beginning of the song is about the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper – Jiles P. Richardson – in a plane crash, but has remained elusive about the rest of the track.

The mystery has made American Pie one of the most debated songs in music history.

Don McLean said writing the song was “a mystical trip into his past”.

The singer said he decided to sell the manuscript, which includes multiple drafts with handwritten notes and deletions, on a whim.

Eight-minute American Pie was No 1 in the US for four weeks and reached No 2 in the UK singles chart in 1972.

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