Making fun of music, one song at a time. Since the year 2000.
Check out the two amIright misheard lyrics books including one book devoted to misheard lyrics of the 1980s.
(Toggle Right Side Navigation)

Song Parodies -> "[Bye-Bye] Little Chevy of Mine"

Original Song Title:

"American Pie"

 (MP3)
Original Performer:

Don McLean

Parody Song Title:

"[Bye-Bye] Little Chevy of Mine"

Parody Written by:

wannabemustangjockey

The Lyrics

A song about the 1973 energy crisis and its after-effects, lamenting the death of the muscle cars.
A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How those V-8s used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those pistons dance
And that would keep me happy for a while!

The muscle cars could make you shiver
As they blast past your parents' flivver.
Gas supplies seemed endless;
The Shah was hardly friendless.

But then one day in '73
The papers predicted catastrophe
That fateful day was (I could see):
The day horsepower died.

So bye-bye, little Chevy of mine
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time
This is such a waste of my time.

Did you see what happened then,
When the Shah got kicked out of Iran?
Jimmy Carter told you so.
Well, did you believe it was all a lie?
That the Middle East thought we'd die
If they just starved us of our oil sup-ply?

Well, I'm sure that they just wanted cash
'Cause you saw the prices quickly crash
It took a couple years,
But it didn't quell the fears...

I got a brand-new Mazda pickup truck
Though I thought the four-banger in it sucked
But hey man, I was out of luck
The day horsepower died.

I started thinking,
Bye-bye, little Chevy of mine
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time
This is such a waste of my time.

Now it's thirty years since the GTO
Which, by its death, was "The Judge" no more
But that's not how it used to be...
The Camaro SS was king of the track,
With the Charger Hemi 440 Six Pak.
AMC had the Re-bel Machine...

Oh, but while our folks were looking down,
Iranians usurped the Shah's crown
The White House was disturbed;
Car buyers were perturbed.
And while Honda Civics sold like mad
Those muscle cars had it so bad
And we all moaned that we'd been had
The day horsepower died.

We were singing,
Bye-bye, little Chevy of mine.
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time
This is such a waste of my time.

Smaller Impalas had never been made
And could no longer make the grade;
So big cars like it were re-placed...
By gutless little crap com-pacts
That couldn't burn out even on wet grass
And the imports, (no surprise here) kicked our ass.

Now the evening news said it was OK
Just buy a small car right away.
The Ford Pin-to was new,
But get rear-ended and you're screwed!
The U.S. tried to level the field
Because OPEC refused to yield
Do you recall was was revealed
The day horsepower died?

We started singing,
Bye-bye, little Chevy of mine.
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time
This is such a waste of my time.

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
What happened to "Grace, Pace, and Space"?
With no gas left to burn, it seemed.
Come off it, ricing your little Civic
With its four-banger and five-speed stick
'Cause you think it's cool to hear that thing scream.

Oh, and as I watched you on the street
You thought that thing was really neat.
You thought it was pure sex...
Dude! It's just a Civic EX!
And, as you raced a Camaro
I thought I saw your engine blow
But how you beat him, I don't know
The day horsepower died.

You were singing,
Bye-bye, little Chevy of mine.
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time
This is such a waste of my time.

A girl bought a Mustang new;
Except it was a Mustang II
And I just grimaced and turned away.
And in the streets were SUVs;
Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys.
Half of them were champagne,
The rest were all just plain beige.
And the three cars I admire most,
The Mustang, Vette, and Camaro,
All were detuned and became slow
The day horsepower died.

And we were singing,
Bye-bye, little Chevy of mine.
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time
This is such a waste of my time.

We were singing,
Bye-bye, little Chevy of mine.
And the Mustangs all sat rusting
'Cause the pumps were all dry
And people sat all day in gasoline lines
Saying, this is such a waste of my time.
(c) 2005 The Wannabe Mustang Jockey - wannabemustangjockey@hotmail.com

Your Vote & Comment Counts

The parody authors spend a lot of time writing parodies for the website and they appreciate feedback in the form of votes and comments. Please take some time to leave a comment below about this parody.

Place Your Vote

 LittleLots
Matches Pace of
Original Song: 
How Funny: 
Overall Score: 



In order for your vote to count, you need to hit the 'Place Your Vote' button.
 

Voting Results

 
Pacing: 5.0
How Funny: 4.9
Overall Rating: 4.9

Total Votes: 7

Voting Breakdown

The following represent how many people voted for each category.

    Pacing How Funny Overall Rating
 1   0
 0
 0
 
 2   0
 0
 0
 
 3   0
 0
 0
 
 4   0
 1
 1
 
 5   7
 6
 6
 

User Comments

Comments are subject to review, and can be removed by the administration of the site at any time and for any reason.

2nz - September 05, 2005 - Report this comment
Superb writing bro. Excellent rhyme scheme and flow. Don't know cars too well, but well enough to appreciate many of the lines in this. Should have more votes. If you're interested in getting it some more looks, I'd enter it in the next SOTM (Song of the Month) competition. A new one starts every month and the songs from the previous month are all eligible. Go to the messageboards to find out more. And perhaps you knew this already...

Anyhow, great job on a LONG, LONG song and my favorite single couplet was: "You thought it was pure sex...
Dude! It's just a Civic EX!"
carol - September 05, 2005 - Report this comment
I liked it 555
Adagio - September 06, 2005 - Report this comment
I really liked the chorus, besides the rest of the parody. I ditto what 2nz said about the Song of the Month, or the other contests. 5's
Red Ant - September 06, 2005 - Report this comment
I voted this yesterday but forgot to comment; this is an excellent parody to a difficult OS. I like the couplet 2nz listed as well as this one:

A girl bought a Mustang new;
Except it was a Mustang II

lol.
John Jenkins - September 06, 2005 - Report this comment
I'm glad that you took up 2nz on his suggestion to enter this in the August SOTM contest. I might have missed it otherwise. I too agree with 2nz on the best couplet. This parody brings back bad memories of long gas lines made even longer by the bad idea of making cars with even-numbered license plate get gas on certain days of the week and cars with odd-numbered license plates get them on the other days. Very good job, jockey.
Red Ant - September 06, 2005 - Report this comment
It'll have to wait until September SOTM contest though; it was posted on Sept 5th. I hope to see it again.

The author of the parody has authorized comments, and wants YOUR feedback.

Link To This Page

The address of this page is: http://www.amiright.com/parody/70s/donmclean79.shtml For help, see the examples of how to link to this page.

This is view # 1429