Contrary to belief, and what many consider to be historical fact, Don McLean recently said his “American Pie” was written in Philadelphia, not in an upstate New York bar that has long laid claim to being the place where he wrote the lyrics to the 1971 chart-topping song on a cocktail napkin.

According to a November 2011 interview, McLean wrote the song in Philadelphia and first performed it at Temple University when he was the opening act for Laura Nyro.