Richard Harris - MacArthur Park [HD]

Richard Harris sings 'MacArthur Park' from his 1968 Dunhill album 'A Tramp Shining'. This song was Harris' first hit, a Grammy winner, and named by one poll the "worse song of all time", so what's not to like? The lyrics are below with comments about the song.

Note: This long song with unusual lyrics makes a video difficult. Even though the writer Jimmy Webb says all the song's images were real, this video has no cakes left "out in the rain" since that's not what the song is about. Webb called the song a "kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park" so the video tries to capture the spirit of a lost love still fondly remembered. Almost all of the images in the video are by Nika Akin on Pixabay.

[Vinyl/47-Images/WAV]

MacArthur Park (Singer: Richard Harris)

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 noooooo

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
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 noooooo

There would be another song for me
For I will sing it
There would 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 noooooo, o-oh no-ooooo

Songwriter: Jimmy Webb

Wikipedia states:

"MacArthur Park" is a song written and composed by Jimmy Webb. Richard Harris was the first to record it in 1968; his version peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number four on the UK Singles Chart. "MacArthur Park" was subsequently covered by numerous artists, including a 1969 Grammy-winning version by country music singer Waylon Jennings, and a number one Billboard Hot 100 disco arrangement by Donna Summer in 1978. In 1967, producer Bones Howe had asked Webb to create a pop song with classical elements, different movements, and changing time signatures. Webb delivered "MacArthur Park" to Howe with "everything he wanted", but Howe did not care for the ambitious arrangement or unorthodox lyrics and the song was rejected by the group The Association, for whom it was originally intended.

"MacArthur Park" was written and composed by Jimmy Webb in the summer and fall of 1967 as part of an intended cantata. Webb initially brought the entire cantata to The Association, but the group rejected it. The inspiration for the song was his relationship and breakup with Susie Horton. MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, was where the couple would occasionally meet for lunch and spent their most enjoyable times together. At that time (the middle of 1965), Horton worked for Aetna insurance, whose offices were located just across the street from the park. When asked by interviewer Terry Gross what was going through his mind when he wrote the lyric, Webb replied that it was meant to be symbolic and referred to the end of a love affair. In an interview with Newsday in October 2014, Webb explained:

Everything in the song was visible. There's nothing in it that's fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so it's a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park. ... Back then, I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.

[Niobesnuppa]

I just dropped a slice of cake on the floor, and felt this was an appropriate song to go with my sadness.

[alancooper]

This fella was born to sing this song, absolutely hauntingly beautiful.

[cheri]

Richard Harris: Jimmy Web, thank you for this artistry after all these years and all others that sang this song.
🙏❤️🌎🌿🕊🎵🎶🎵🎶

[angelicaluce]

This is one of my favorite songs = and I LOVE RICHARD - but I had a brain hemorrhage and it wiped away some of my memory - I couldn't remember "MacArthur Park" OR Richard Harris - it make me CRAZY. today IT ALL CAME BACK! THE SONG, HIS FACE, THE WORDS - EVERYTHING! THANK YOU MY GUARDIAN ANGEL!!!

[stevewhewell]

Richard Harris owns this song. No one does it with more passion.

[limklass]

Iconic song sung by Limerick (Ireland) native Richard Harris. Thank you from a Limerick Careblazer - so appropriate. Deirdre

[kevinlamphere]

PASSION. RICHARD HARRIS REALLY NAILED THIS. JIMMY WEBB GREAT MELODIES AND LYRICS. HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL

[ronfreeman]

Songs a Classic!! A great Jimmy Webb creation.. And like an old wine... just gets better with time...😎✌❣

[mortengammelmarknielsen]

Amazing performance great song i like the flow in this song

[andrewpetik]

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!

[ruthspira]

This song transports me standing on the fantail of the Milwaukee Clipper, watching the wake and the lights of Milwaukee slowly fade. Good times.

[daviddragavon]

I had the album. Thank goodness for YouTube so I can listen to just this song. The REST of the recording ranged from: very bad to gawd awful. But this song, it appeals to me.

[cheri]

Absolutely beautiful!!!
🙏❤️🌎🌏🌍🌿🕊🎵🎶🎵💫✨️💫✨️

[mtsflorida]

This looks just like the love of my life from the 80's that I think of when I hear this song. Thank you so much! 💓 💗 💛

[Kingscrib]

People can criticize Jimmy Webb for Macarthur Park, but it paints incredible pictures of a love that moved on. Its many musical elements from Pop through Classical, the big production, and the intense imagery became synonymous with the late 60s.
I remember wondering about the lyrics while being swept up in the theatrically of Macarthur Park. It's a classic. Flights of fancy.

[brendasykes]

The Orchestra did a very beautiful job

[gloriag]

❤🙏Richard Harris 1930-2002, rests in blissful, eternal peace ❤🙏

[jeffreyfinley]

I can remember blasting down Wilshire in my ‘67 Camaro and yah this would play as I wheeled through MacArthur Park….inevitably…it mirrored my life at the time

[rickrodrigues]

MacArthur Park...a cryptic message from Harris but perhaps not so cryptic & certainly not about "melting cake" but more about a man in "melt down" & in absolute despair...inconsolable about a lost love.
The lament & the truth - 2:52....

[billlackey]

I just dropped my heart for this song on the floor and I think my heart will make it but I don't know if I can take it❤😂