MacArthur Park (song) - Original Webb Composition and Harris Recording

Original Webb Composition and Harris Recording

The inspiration for "MacArthur Park" was the relationship and breakup between Webb and Susan Ronstadt, a cousin of singer Linda Ronstadt. MacArthur Park was where the two occasionally met for lunch and spent their most enjoyable times together. At that time (mid-1965), Ronstadt worked for a life insurance company whose offices were located just across the street from the park. Webb and Ronstadt 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 Webb 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. Buddy Greco has closed every show with this number for the past forty years.

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 lyrics, Webb replied that the lyrics were meant to be symbolic and referred to the end of a love affair.

The song was first recorded by Richard Harris, after Harris first met Webb 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 suggested to him that he wanted to release a record. Webb didn't take it seriously until he later received a telegram from Harris, requesting that he come to London to begin the project. After exhaustively listening to all of Webb's compositions, Harris selected "MacArthur Park" for his pop music debut.

The Harris recording of "MacArthur Park" comprises four sections or movements:

1. A mid-tempo arrangement, called "In the Park" in the original session notes, built around piano and harpsichord, with horns and orchestra coming in, accompanying the song's main verses and choruses
2. At about two and a half minutes in, this shifts to a slow tempo and quiet arrangement paired with an alternate lyric, "After the Loves of My Life"
3. At about five minutes in, a sudden switch to an up-tempo instrumental section, "Allegro", led by drums and percussion and punctuated by horn riffs, building up to an orchestral climax
4. At about six and a half minutes in, a reprise of the first section's arrangement accompanying the final choruses and another climax.

The recording was made on December 21, 1967, at Armin Steiner's Sound Recorders in Hollywood, with further work done 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 Mike Deasy on guitar, along with Webb himself on harpsichord.

Throughout the recording, Harris can be heard using an incorrect possessive form, "MacArthur's Park." Webb has said he tried correcting Harris during retakes, but gave up when Harris simply could not (or would not) sing the correct words. (The version recorded by Donna Summer retains this error.)

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, and peaked at No. 2 on the American charts. 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.

"MacArthur Park" received the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) in 1969.

"MacArthur Park's" unusual metaphors and sentimentality have made it a frequent target of parody and ridicule over the years. Speaking about the controversy in a 2007 interview, songwriter Jimmy 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."

In 1992, humorist Dave Barry conducted a poll among his readers of the worst songs ever, as recorded in Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs. Barry's readers selected Harris' version of "MacArthur Park" as the worst song ever recorded, both in terms of "Worst Lyrics" and "Worst Overall Song". In the book he acknowledges the results are biased because he had arbitrarily limited the survey to songs that were very popular and at least 10 years old, as well as excluding certain songs including ones that were intentionally terrible. The survey also likely reflects the demographics of his readership: the large number of middle aged readers resulted in a disproportionate number of Oldies being selected.