♫ MacArthur Park ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I last played this song back in early 2020, but when I first I played this, back in July 2018, my then-friend Ellen commented that her favourite version was Donna Summer’s.  While I like some of Ms. Summer’s work, I still prefer Richard Harris’ version of this song, but hey … I try to please everyone, so I added Ms. Summer’s version as well back in 2020.  Choose one, choose both, choose the other, or sigh in disgust and listen to neither!  Your choice!  The past two times I played this, I didn’t include any trivia, but have remedied that oversight this time!

This one should be familiar to those of my generation both in the U.S. and across the pond, for in 1968 it hit #2 on the U.S. charts and #4 in the UK.  It reached the #1 spot in both Australia and Canada, however. Others have recorded this song, including country singer Waylon Jennings and Donna Summer, but I’ve always been partial to the Richard Harris version.  Not the most cheerful song, perhaps, but it suits my mood tonight … ♫ Someone left the cake out in the rain ♫  …  just be thankful you don’t have to listen to me singing it!

According to SongFacts …

Jimmy Webb, who wrote the song, explained in Q magazine: “It’s clearly about a love affair ending, and the person singing it is using the cake and the rain as a metaphor for that. OK, it may be far out there, and a bit incomprehensible, but I wrote the song at a time in the late 1960s when surrealistic lyrics were the order of the day.”

The love affair Webb speaks of was with Suzy Horton, who in 1993 married Linda Ronstadt’s cousin, Bobby. Said Webb (in the Los Angeles Times), “MacArthur Park was where we met for lunch and paddleboat rides and feeding the ducks. She worked across the street at a life insurance company. 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.”

Are you convinced there’s more to this song than Jimmy Webb is letting on? You might be right. The staff music composer Colin McCourt used to work for the publisher of this song, Edwin. H. Morris. McCourt claims Webb explained to him the song’s meaning – cake in the rain and all. He told The Daily Mail April 2, 2011: “Jim was in love with a girl who left him. Months later, he heard she was getting married – in the park. Broken hearted, he went to the wedding and, not wanting to be seen, hid in a gardener’s shed.

As the open-air ceremony was taking place, it started to pour with rain and the rain running down the shed window made the cake look as if it was melting.

Interestingly, the man who married the girl was a phone engineer from Wichita – inspiration for another of Jim’s hits?”

One thing for sure: When Webb found out Suzy Horton was getting married, it inspired him to write “Worst That Could Happen.”

The Richard Harris version went to #1 in Canada, #2 in the U.S., and #4 in the UK, while the Donna Summers’ version hit #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #5 in the UK.  No accounting for taste, is there?

MacArthur Park
Richard Harris/Donna Summer

Spring was never waiting for us, dear
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance

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

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground beneath your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing Chinese checkers by the trees

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

MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left my cake out in the rain
And 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

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Jimmy Webb
Macarthur Park lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

42 thoughts on “♫ MacArthur Park ♫”

  1. Now I know why I never really loved this song: It builds up and up and up … only to not find a conclusion in a dramatical refrain. I now went through both versions and am still waiting. 😐

    Liked by 1 person

      • I’ve always had a soft spot for disco and dance and Donna Summer so I’ll have to lean towards hers. But it’s so nice to hear a different take on it too!

        Liked by 1 person

        • I sometimes think it’s a matter of what we heard first … I heard Richard Harris sing this long before I had even heard of Donna Summer, so I prefer his. But, either way, I’m glad you enjoyed the song! We all have our own preferences when it comes to music, which is what makes it so much fun!

          Liked by 1 person

    • I wasn’t too crazy about the Donna Summer version, but loved the Richard Harris one! A funny personal story about Donna Summer. My kids were little at the time, maybe 8 & 9 or so, when one afternoon I was dozing in my chair. Remember, I have been nearly deaf since birth. They shook me awake to ask me … “Mom, is Donna Summer Black or white?” I thought they said ‘dinosaur’, so naturally I said, “Neither … they are green”. And it has been a family joke ever since that Donna Summer is green!

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  5. And not to be picky, Jill (Okay, to be very picky!) here are the lyrics to the Richatrd Harris version of MacArthur Park. Nowhere in this song does the word “Chinese” appear, for one thing. But the number of missing lines verses from your lyrics leaves a lot to be desired!

    Spring was never waiting for us, girl
    It ran one step ahead
    As we followed in the dance
    Between the parted pages and were pressed
    In love’s hot, fevered iron
    Like a striped pair of pants

    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!

    I recall the yellow cotton dress
    Foaming like a wave
    On the ground around your knees
    The birds, like tender babies in your hands
    And the old men playing checkers by the trees

    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!

    There will be another song for me
    For I will sing it
    There will be another dream for me
    Someone will bring it
    I will drink the wine while it is warm
    And never let you catch me looking at the sun
    And after all the loves of my life
    After all the loves of my life
    You’ll still be the one

    I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
    I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
    I will have the things that I desire
    And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
    And after all the loves of my life
    Oh, after all the loves of my life
    I’ll be thinking of you
    And wondering why

    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
    Oh no!

    Liked by 1 person

    • No, I didn’t know about the Sea Wolves!!! This is fascinating … and right up there in B.C. where my friend Emily lives, too! Thank you so much for sharing this, Ali … you know I think the wolf is my spirit animal!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Honestly, I thought that could be the case; I didn’t want to presume since I’m sort of a newbie here, but I thought of you first when I saw that piece.

        Liked by 1 person

        • I have long felt a particular kinship with the wolf, and many years ago an Indigenous friend said perhaps the wolf is my spirit animal. I liked that and have felt it to be so ever since! Thank you again, Ali!

          Liked by 1 person

  7. According to Webb, this song was specifically written for The Association, but once they heard it they declined. He did not say why.
    Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I am trying to visualize (audioalize?) The Association using their vocalizations on MacArthur Park. Using their breakout hit as a base, I just can’t quite get it in my head…

    Liked by 2 people

  8. The Donna Summer version was always a “hey, let’s take a potty break!” song back in my disco days. I like Donna Summer, but this song confounded me in ’68, and again when she did it. It’s probably been only 8-10 years that I’ve been happy to hear & enjoy this song, especially the Richard Harris version; I used to crush on him. Thanks, Jill! Also, I’m looking for a good spot to put a link to something about wolves you might enjoy. Just letting you know it’ll show up. 🙂

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  9. Pingback: ♫ MacArthur Park ♫ | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  10. Jill, thanks for the added context. When we saw Jimmy Webb touring to honor Glen Campbell who sang a number of his songs, he did “MacArthur Park” and played to old footage of Glen Campbell doing an excellent guitar solo withing the song. Campbell was part of the recording studio’s famous Wrecking Crew who was heard on the recordings of many famous songs, so he could really play.

    Webb wrote a number of big hits not just for Campbell, but for the 5th Dimensions, Art Garfunkel and this one. Keith

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    • Jill, when I told my Harry Potter loving daughter that the actor who initially played Dumbledore had a hit record, she did not believe me.

      As for Webb, he said in his concert he had a huge crush on Marilyn McCoo of The Fifth Dimension so he wrote “Up, up and away” for the group. He also said his father, who was not a fan of him writing music, did his son a huge favor and hand delivered a recording to one of the five largest radio stations in America and made sure they played his first hit song “By the time I get to Phoenix.” Glen Campbell heard it and called Webb up to see if he could record it. Keith

      Liked by 1 person

      • While I have not seen any of the Harry Potter movies, I well remember the joy of reading the books to my then-young granddaughter Natasha back in the day! Along those same lines, Mark Mothersbaugh, who was the inspiration and voice of Chuckie in the Rugrats cartoons, was also an accomplished musician in the 1980s! Multi-talented people! I did not know that about Webb or Glen Campbell … you always add some fascinating context!!! Thank you!

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    • My pleasure, Keith! It’s always fun to learn the background of a song, isn’t it? Wow … is there anybody you haven’t seen in concert? I’m jealous! Glen Campbell was much more diverse than I realized at the time, but his name keeps cropping up!

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