This Don McLean story came to me from the promoter of a club who had booked him some years ago.
The band who got the opening slot on that particular McLean tour found him insufferably full of himself and the shows something of a chore. But they'd signed a contract and were locked into the tour.
Finally they came up with a way to get out of it -- and get some revenge at the same time -- by learning "American Pie" -- the full-length version -- and performing it as their set closer, exhorting the audience to sing and clap along, and thereby pretty much stealing McLean's thunder.
McLean told them to drop the song, which they'd do for a night or two, then it would creep back into the set again. They were finally fired by McLean's management after they'd pulled the stunt one too many times.