MacArthur Park (song)
For the park in Los Angeles, California after which the song was named, see MacArthur Park
"MacArthur Park" is an epic song, written by Jimmy Webb and first performed by Richard Harris in 1968. Harris' seminal recording topped the music charts in Europe, while peaking at number two on the U.S. charts.
It was an unusual single, running for more than seven minutes, with a long, climactic orchestral break. The lyrics were more symbolic and sentimental than descriptive (featuring the notable line, "Someone left the cake out in the rain"), and were apparently about a lost love and a rendezvous in the park. It has been covered more than fifty times, including versions by Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, Maynard Ferguson, Liza Minnelli, and most notably, by Donna Summer in a 1978 disco version that topped the U.S. charts, and ran to 17 minutes in its full-length version.
The sentimentality of the song made it an easy target for parody. "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a version of the song for his album Alapalooza with new lyrics recapping the plot of the movie Jurassic Park. The comedy series SCTV aired a sketch with an actor playing Richard Harris singing "MacArthur Park" and waiting in agony during the orchestral break to finish the song while the show moved on to other skits. In Episode 9F02 of The Simpsons, Lisa the Beauty Queen, another contestant in the beauty pageant announces that she is going to sing the song in its entirety, and the audience laughs at her. Also, in a Seinfeld episode, the song is alluded to when George Costanza recalls a scene from his childhood in which he was singing the song. A poll by American columnist Dave Barry selected "MacArthur Park" as the worst song ever recorded.
Quotation
- MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
- All the sweet, green icing flowing down
- Someone left the cake out in the rain
- I don't think that I can take it
- 'cause it took so long to bake it
- And I'll never have that recipe again
- Oh, no!
- Oh, no
- No, no
Despite the rather poetic homage paid to it, the real MacArthur Park became known for being a violent place after 1985 when drug deals, shoot-outs and occasional drownings became somewhat common there. Before the decline of the neighborhood, the park featured the traditional paddle-boats and a large fountain in the center of the lake; since the park was a popular middle-class destination for over fifty years, it is likely it can be reclaimed in the future.
External link
- A tribute to Richard Harris set to MacArthur Park Created by Chris Pickering and Alex Harris. (Approx. 1.4 mb)