MacArthur Park (song)

"MacArthur Park"
Song

"MacArthur Park" is a song which Jimmy Webb originally wrote and composed as part of an intended cantata. Webb initially brought the entire cantata to The Association, but the group rejected it. Richard Harris was the first to record the song, in 1968; it was subsequently covered and spoofed by numerous artists. Among the best-known covers are Donna Summer's disco arrangement from 1978 and Four Tops (1971).

Although it was a commercially successful song multiple times after it was released, "MacArthur Park" used flowery lyrics and metaphors (most famously, lost love being likened to a cake left out in the rain) that were considered by media such as the Los Angeles Times to be "polarizing" and "loopy."

Composition

"MacArthur Park" was written and composed by Jimmy Webb in the summer and fall of 1967. The inspiration for the song was his relationship and breakup with Susie Horton, who later married David Ronstadt, a cousin of singer Linda Ronstadt. MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, California, was where the two occasionally met for lunch and spent their most enjoyable times together. At that time (the middle of 1965), Horton worked for a life insurance company whose offices were located just across the street from the park. In an interview with Newsday in October 2014, Webb explained:

Everything in the song was visible. There's nothing in it that's fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so it's a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park. ... Back then, I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.

Webb and Horton remained friends, even after her marriage to another man. The breakup was also the primary influence for "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," another selection of Webb's authorship and composition. After his relationship breakup, Webb stayed for a while at the residence of Buddy Greco, upon whose piano the piece was composed and originally dedicated. Greco closed all his shows with this number for forty years.

The idea to write and compose a classically oriented song with multiple movements that could be played on the radio came from a challenge by music producer Bones Howe, who produced recordings for The Association. The song begins as a poem about love, then moves into a lover's lament. When asked by interviewer Terry Gross what was going through his mind when he wrote the lyric, Webb replied that it was meant to be symbolic and referred to the end of a love affair.

The song consists of four sections or movements:

1. A mid-tempo introduction and opening section, called "In the Park" in the original session notes, is built around piano and harpsichord, with horns and orchestra added. This arrangement accompanies the song's main verses and choruses.
2. A slow tempo and quiet section follows, called "After the Loves of My Life."
3. An up-tempo instrumental section, called "Allegro," is led by drums and percussion, punctuated by horn riffs, builds to an orchestral climax.
4. A mid-tempo reprise of the first section, concludes with the final choruses and climax.

Richard Harris recording

"MacArthur Park" was first recorded by Richard Harris, after he met the composer at a fundraiser in East Los Angeles, California in late 1967. Webb had been invited to provide the musical backdrop at the piano. Out of the blue, Harris, who had just starred and performed several musical numbers in the film Camelot, suggested to Webb that he wanted to release a record. At first, Webb did not take Harris seriously, but later he received a telegram from Harris, requesting that Webb "come to London and make a record." Webb flew to London and played Harris a number of songs for the project, but none seemed to fit for Harris's pop music debut. The last song that Webb played for Harris was "MacArthur Park," originally written for The Association, whose members had promptly rejected it because of its length, complex structure, and unorthodox lyrics. Harris selected "MacArthur Park" for his pop music debut.

The track was recorded on December 21, 1967, at Armin Steiner's Sound Recorders in Hollywood. String, woodwind and brass overdubs were recorded over two sessions on December 29 and 30. The musicians in the original studio recording included members of the famous "Wrecking Crew" of Los Angeles-based studio musicians who played on many of the hit records of the 1960s and 1970s. Personnel used included Hal Blaine on drums, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass guitar, and Tommy Tedesco and Mike Deasy on guitars, along with Webb himself on harpsichord.

The recording appeared on Harris's album A Tramp Shining in 1968 and was released as a single. It was an unusual choice, at its more than seven minute length and multi-part structure. Harris topped the music charts in Europe and Australia. Harris's version was released in April 1968 (WABC first played it on Tuesday 9 April 1968) and on the Hot 100 bowed at #79 on 11 May 1968 and peaked at #2 on 22 June 1968. The song peaked at No. 10 in Billboard's Easy Listening survey and was No. 8 for the year on WABC's overall 1968 chart. In 1969, "MacArthur Park" received the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

"MacArthur Park's" unusual metaphors and sentimentality have made it a frequent target of parody and ridicule over the years. In 1992, for example, humorist Dave Barry conducted a poll among his readers who selected Harris's version of "MacArthur Park" as the worst song ever recorded, both in terms of "Worst Lyrics" and "Worst Overall Song." Speaking about the controversy in a 2007 interview, Webb said: "Those lyrics were all very real to me: there was nothing psychedelic about it to me. The cake, it was an available object. It was what I saw in the park at the birthday parties. But people have very strong reactions to the song. There's been a lot of intellectual venom."

Chart (1968)	Peak position
Australia	1
Canada (RPM)	1
UK	4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2

Donna Summer recording

"MacArthur Park"
Song
B-side	"Once Upon a Time" (Live) (US) "Last Dance" (Live) (France) "Mac Arthur Park" (Part Two) (Japan) "One Of A Kind" (12") "Heaven Knows (12") "MacArthur Park (Reprise)" (12")

In the autumn of 1978, American singer Donna Summer released a multi-million selling vinyl single disco version of "MacArthur Park." This reached number one on the American pop music sales charts for three weeks during 1978, and it was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Summer was also nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Female at the American Music Awards; her album Live and More took the award for Favorite Disco Album. Summer's recording, which was included as part of the "Mac Arthur Park Suite" on her double album Live and More, was eight minutes and forty seconds long. The shorter seven-inch vinyl single version was Summer's first to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100; it does not include the balladic second movement of the song, however. Summer's recording was composer Jimmy Webb's only number one song in the US.

The nearly 18-minute musical medley "Mac Arthur Park Suite" incorporated the songs "One of a Kind" and "Heaven Knows," the latter of which Summer subsequently released as a single. This medley was also sold as a 12-inch (30 cm) vinyl recording, and it stayed at number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart for five weeks in 1978.

The versions of this medley in Live and More and in the 12-inch recording are notably different in choices of the lengths of the slices of the two accompanying songs. In the 12-inch version, "Heaven Knows" was extended to incorporate the instrumental string introduction and the bridge horn solo of the single version for radio stations, but left out the second verse and "One of a Kind" was trimmed of a large part of the instrumental break but included the second verse.

"Mac Arthur Park Suite" was not included on the compact disc version of Live and More because of early CD limitations; however, the album version is available on 1987's The Dance Collection: A Compilation of Twelve Inch Singles. The 12" Special One-Sided Disco DJ Single has been digitally remastered and included on the Bad Girls digipak double CD release.

In 2013, the song was remixed by Laidback Luke for the Donna Summer remix album Love To Love You Donna (it was also remixed by Ralphi Rosario and Frank Lamboy), which was released to dance clubs all over America, having a successful peaking at No. 1, giving Summer her first posthumous No. 1 and her twentieth No. 1 overall.

Chart (1978)	Peak position
Dutch GfK chart	8
Dutch Top 40	9
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1

Chart (2013)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Dance Club Songs	1

Other versions

"MacArthur Park"
Song
B-side	"But You Know I Love You"

• The Four Tops (1971) which reached #38 on the Billboard singles chart.

Appearances in Popular Culture

The song is referenced in the second season episode of the sitcom Seinfeld entitled "The Statue." Upon seeing a statue that resembles the one in his parents' house in Jerry's apartment, George Costanza reveals that he accidentally destroyed the statue while singing "MacArthur Park" at age ten, using it as a microphone, which fell out of his hands at the part: "and I'll never have that recipe again."

In "Lisa the Beauty Queen," the season four episode of The Simpsons, a Little Miss Springfield contestant (Apu's niece and his brother Sanjay's daughter) is shown performing "MacArthur Park." When she finally concludes, her uncle and father are the only two who applaud her, as the rest of the audience had fallen asleep due to the song's notorious length.

"Jurassic Park" is a parody of MacArthur Park written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

See also

• List of number-one dance singles of 2013 (U.S.)

External links

• Cite from Fred Bronson, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, Billboard, 1988
• Link to The Lou Gordon Home Page