MacArthur Park (song)
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| "MacArthur Park" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Richard Harris (1968) | ||
| Released | 1968 | |
| Format | vinyl record (7" 45 RPM) | |
| Length | 7:20 | |
| Writer(s) | Jimmy Webb | |
| "MacArthur Park" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Donna Summer | ||
| from the album Live and More | ||
| B-side(s) | * Once Upon a Time (Live) | |
| Released | 1978 | |
| Format | 7" single, 12" single | |
| Genre | Disco, Pop, Soul, R&B | |
| Label | Casablanca | |
| Writer(s) | Jimmy Webb | |
| Producer(s) | Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Donna Summer singles chronology | ||
| "Je t'aime... moi non plus" (1978) |
"MacArthur Park" (1978) |
"Heaven Knows" (1978) |
"MacArthur Park" is an epic song written by Jimmy Webb and first performed by Richard Harris on his album A Tramp Shining in 1968. The seminal recording topped the music charts in Europe and peaked at number two on the U.S. charts. The song is named after MacArthur Park, a park in Los Angeles, California.
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.
Contents |
[edit] The Music
It can be split roughly into 4 sections, or themes. The first theme contains the verses and chorus, and the lyrics begin "Spring was never waiting for us girl..." 5/4 fanfares interupt the 4/4 of the song by adding an additional beat to the end of each phrase. This section centers on Dm, the fanfares start on center on Ab, and the chorus centers on C major.
The second theme is a slow lamenting melody, and starts with "There will be another song, for me..." It is in F, and contains many Maj7 and a few M7b5 chords. At the end of this it briefly goes back into the opening theme.
The 3rd theme is a fast paced instrumental, centered around G minor. It contains alot of V/I style chords. The theme chords climb diatonically over a droning bass line. It then goes to a ascension of notes based on the chords Gb, Bb, Db, and resolves to F.
The first and fourth themes are similar, but are in fact different. The "MacArthur's park is melting..." starts this time in F, not C. And instead of the lines "I don't think that I can take it..." starting on a I/III, it starts on a VI, and descends. The finale concludes with a phrase similar to the opening theme (but in Ab instead of a Dm).
The song is, musically, extremely complex, considering the pop format.
[edit] Covers
The song has been covered more than fifty times, including versions by Waylon Jennings, The Negro Problem, Glen Campbell, Maynard Ferguson[1], Stan Kenton, Sammy Davis, Jr., Justin Hayward and Liza Minnelli.
A disco version by Donna Summer in 1978 topped the U.S. charts for three weeks and ran to 8:40 in its full-length album version as part of "MacArthur Park suite" on Summer's 1978 double album "Live and More". Her first Billboard Hot 100 number one single in the United States was shorter. Summer also released the 17:40 long medley "MacArthur Park Suite" as a US 12" promo, incorporating the songs "One of a Kind" and "Heaven Knows". The suite went to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for five weeks in 1978.
Ed Ames recorded a version featuring only the middle section as "After all the loves of my life". The Four Tops recorded their version of the song, omitting the long instrumental breaks of the song.
[edit] Negative Press
A poll conducted by American columnist Dave Barry, recorded in Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, selected Harris's version of "MacArthur Park" as the worst song ever recorded.
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; the park was a popular middle-class destination for over fifty years. The park has been cleaned up and gentrification is occurring all around the surrounding area of Downtown Los Angeles.
[edit] Grammar correction
Throughout the original song, Harris can be heard using the incorrect possessive form, "MacArthur's Park." Webb has said he tried correcting Harris during re-takes, but gave up when he simply could not sing the correct words.
[edit] Parodies and allusions in media
The sentimentality of the song made it an easy target for parody.
[edit] Music
- "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a version of the song for his album Alapalooza called "Jurassic Park," with new lyrics recapping the plot of the film of the same name. A commonly held conspiracy theory is that “Weird Al” perfected time travel and traveled to 1968 to write "MacArthur Park", for the sole purpose of parodying it 25 years later. This is believed largely because “MacArthur Park” has the least sensible lyrics of any song in history.
- k.d. lang sings "MacArthur Park" to a discarded yellow dress that was used in a campy performance of "Miss Chatelaine" in her 2001 concert Live by Request.
- They Might Be Giants make an oblique reference to the song's most famous verse in "It's Not My Birthday". "When this gray world crumbles like a cake/I'll be hangin' from the hope/That I'll never see that recipe again"
- It turns up in Kinky Friedman's Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned as sung by a character presenting a cake.
- The Negro Problem alluded to MacArthur Park's crime problems with their cover, which replaces the word cake with crack.
[edit] Television and radio
- The comedy series Second City Television aired a sketch where on a 1970s-type music and dance program, Richard Harris (played by Dave Thomas) sings "MacArthur Park". During the orchestral break, he waits in agony to finish the song, and the show moves on to other skits in the meantime.
- In an episode of The Simpsons, "Lisa the Beauty Queen", Apu's niece Pahusacheta announces that she is going to sing the song in its entirety, while playing the tabla, and the audience laughs at her. They then gasp when she says that she is serious. Later, she is shown performing the last few lines to a bored audience. When she finishes Krusty says "ohh...That just kept goin' huh?"
- In another episode of The Simpsons Homer is upset about being put on hold on the phone. He decides to get back at them by singing his own hold music. One of the songs he sings is "MacArthur Park".
- In yet another Simpsons episode, "A Fish Called Selma," the name of Troy McClure's agent is "MacArthur Parker."
- In a Seinfeld episode called "The Statue", George Costanza recalls that he used a statue as a pretend microphone to sing "MacArthur Park" when he was a kid. When he got to the last line, as he admits, he accidentally threw the statue, breaking it. He compares his parents' reaction to the statue akin to breaking the Ten Commandments.
- It is referenced on the television series Angel, as the one song Lorne, the musically inclined demon, can use as a weapon without fail ("That high note in "MacArthur Park" is said to "slay 'em every time").
- At the end of a disastrous guest stint hosting the drivetime show on BBC Southern Counties Radio, the presenters of Top Gear cued up "MacArthur Park" to facilitate an early exit from the building.
- In the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "Mistaken Identity", Will and Carlton's cellmate, known as Bob, sings an excerpt from the song.
- In an episode of According to Jim, Dana says she hears Donna Summer singing MacArthur Park when Jim talks.
- In Cartoon Planet's song "I Love You, Baby", Brak sings the line "Somebody left a cake out in the rain / Oh no! / I was gonna eat that cake / But now it's all wet and I don't think I want any!"
- On Disco Night of Season Four of American Idol, Carrie Underwood performed her take on the Donna Summer version, to rave reviews.
- In the Neil Cicierega video "Remembering Dumbledore", this song is used.
- From 1968 through to 1982 Australian Television stations forming the 0-10 network in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide in Australia used the MacArthur Park theme, as covered by Hugo Montenegro, at various times as its station ID music. The theme making its debut on ATV-0 in Melbourne in 1968. TEN-10 Sydney, ATV-0 Melbourne and TVQ-10(TVQ-0)Brisbane used the theme from 1973 -1975 during the transition from Black and White transmission to Colour. All stations adjusting the Black and White animation used with the theme to a full colour animation from March 1, 1975 when colour broadcasting started in Australia. TEN-10 Sydney the last to air the theme as its promo music from 1981-1982.
[edit] Film and musicals
- A Muzak version is briefly featured in the film Airplane II: The Sequel, blaring loudly from an airport elevator. All elevator passengers, except for two airline executives, enter or leave the elevator covering their ears.
- In the movie Vertical Limit, a climber (played by Stuart Wilson) sings this song before he falls off the mountain.
- The song was parodied in an Australian musical about the Vietnam War, Pearls Before Swine, as Centennial Park (a Sydney, Australia landmark), featuring lines such as, "the cake you bake is made of lies".
- In Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the character of Mitzi says "Bernice has left her cake out in the rain!"
| Preceded by "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Donna Summer version) November 11, 1978 |
Succeeded by "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond |
