Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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RICHARD HARRIS
“MACARTHUR PARK”
(Jim Webb)
Dunhill 4134
No. 2 June 22, 1968
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In 1993, syndicated columnist Dave Berry asked his readers to tell of their most hated song. The winner:
writer Jimmy Webb and “singer” Richard Harris’s “MacArthur Park.
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If creator Jim Webb had gotten his way, the tasted tune would never have gotten into Harris’s mouth.
Jimmy’s oblong ode was intended to be a 22-minute cantata that he wanted recorded by the Association.The
opus was to fill a side of an LP and be sliced into singles. “I set up a meeting with Jimmy and the
Association, and he played the cantata for them on the piano,” said producer Bones Howe to authors Bruce
Nash and Allan Zullo. “It was a wonderful piece of music. After he left, the group met with me and said,
‘Any two guys in this group could write a better piece of music than that.”‘
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In 1967, Richard and Jimmy became fast friends; with the former inviting the later to trek with him to
Ireland to hit pubs. Back in Harris’s London abode, Jimmy played his yet to be recorded tunes; among
them “MacArthur Park.” “He went for it immediately,” said Webb to Nash and Zullo. “He must have had
some kind of premonition. He fastened on that song and wanted to record it. At the time, I though, ‘How
adventurous and ambitious of him.”‘
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Richard Harris (b. Oct. 1, 1932, Limerick, Ireland)–who had never recorded a single before–was educated
at the Sacred Heart Jesuit College and trained in drama at the London Academy of Music and Art. He made
his acting debut in 1956, and his first film appearance two years later in Alive and Kicking (1958). He
acted in many notable flicks, including The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), but
attained international notoriety with his role in This Sporting Life (1963). He received an acting award
from the Cannes Festival for his performance, and was nominated for an Oscar. Four years later, Harris
played King Arthur in the film version of Camelot (1967).
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Do inquiring minds still want to know? It has been near a half Century since we first heard of this poor cake
that was left out in the rain: “I don’t think I can make it/’Cause it took so long to bake it/And I’ll never have
the recipe again, oh, no.” Richard Harris’ seven-minute singing sensation seemed so sincere and ever so
impassioned. But what was this tune all about?
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“The song is about a girlfriend of mine;’ songwriter Jimmy Webb (creator of the more fondly remembered
“Up Up and Away” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”) told Joe Smith in Off the Record. “You associate a
place with a person. You spend a lot of time there with that person, and when the relationship ends, you do
a lot of thinking about that place. That’s what ‘MacArthur Park’ is all about. I used to go there [to a park at
the end of Wiltshire Boulevard in Los Angeles] and have lunch. That’s where the cake comes from. ‘Sitting
in the park on a bench eating cake.’ The image is, the rain comes, and the whole thing is going, or melting,
and then it’s gone.”
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Okay, one of the pop world’s perplexing mysteries has been solved, and right from the horse’s mouth.
Sometimes things are much simpler than they seem. Ah…though I liked the mystery much, much more.
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Harris, not primarily known for his vocal chops, did manage to sustain a recording career of sorts with more
Webb creations like “The Yard Went on Forever” (#64, 1968), “Didn’t We” (#63, 1969), and “My Boy” (#41,
1972). He also recited his way through best-selling spoken-word albums like Jonathan Livingston Seagull
(1973) and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (1974). His post-popdom screenwork includes A Man Called
Horse (1970), Cromwell (1970), Robin and Marian (1976), The Cassandra Crossing (1977), Gulliver’s
Travels (1977), Orca (1977), Tarzan the Ape Man (1981), Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1982), Martin’s
Day (1984), The Return (1988), Mack the Knife (1989), and The Field (1990), for which he was nominated
for an Oscar.
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As for Jimmy Webb’s little cake, the drenched dessert reappeared on the Hot 100 via renditions by Waylon
Jennings (#93, 1969), The Four Tops (#38, 1971), and Donna Summer (#1, 1978).
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Legend stands that Richard and Jimmy had a falling out after “MacArthur Park”–which Harris unconscion-
ably sings as “MacArthur’s Park,” from begin to end–became a hit. The actor promised the tunesmith his
Rolls Royce if the record went Top 10. After the disk peaked at number two, Harris is reported to have
offered Jimmy a different Rolls Royce. Jimmy was ticked, wanting what was promised, and the two ceased
to communicate for years.