"MacArthur Park" is a song written by American

singer-songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk- acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has ...

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He achieved success at an early age, winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the age of 21. During his career, he established himself as one of Am ...

that was recorded first in 1967 by Irish actor and singer

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. Having studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he rose to prominence as an icon of the British New Wave. He received numerous a ...

. Harris's version peaked at number two on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

chart and number four on the UK Singles Chart. Webb won the 1969 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) at the

11th Annual Grammy Awards The 11th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 12, 1969. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1968. Presenters * Dan Rowan & Dick Martin - Introduced The Temptations * Flip Wilson - Introduced Jeannie C. Riley * The King ...

for the Harris version. "MacArthur Park" was subsequently covered by numerous artists, including a 1970 version by

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

singer

Waylon Jennings Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Outlaw country, outlaw movement in country music. Jennings started playing ...

that won a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group at the 12th Annual Grammy Awards and a number one ''Billboard'' Hot 100

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

version by

Donna Summer Donna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music ...

in 1978.Boucher, Geoff
"'MacArthur Park' Jimmy Webb , 1968"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', June 10, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2015

Composition

"MacArthur Park" was written and composed by

in the summer and fall of 1967 as part of a

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

. Webb brought the entire cantata to

the Association The Association is an American sunshine pop band from Los Angeles, California. During the late 1960s, the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts, ''Billboard'' charts (including "Windy (The Association song), Windy" ...

, but the group rejected it. The inspiration for the song was his relationship and breakup with Susie Horton.

MacArthur Park MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and la ...

, 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 Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

insurance, whose offices were across the street from the park. When asked by interviewer

Terry Gross Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of '' Fresh Air'', an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NP ...

what was going through his mind when he wrote the song's lyrics, Webb replied that it was meant to be symbolic and referred to the end of a love affair. In an interview with ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'' in October 2014, Webb explained: Webb and Horton remained friends, even after her marriage to another man. The breakup was also the primary influence for "

By the Time I Get to Phoenix "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is a song written by Jimmy Webb. Originally recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1965, it was reinterpreted by American country music singer Glen Campbell on his album of the same name. Released on Capitol Records in 1 ...

", another song written and composed by Webb. The idea to write and compose a classically structured song with several movements that could be played on the radio came from a challenge by music producer

Bones Howe Dayton Burr "Bones" Howe (born March 18, 1933) is an American record producer and recording engineer who scored a string of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, often of the sunshine pop genre, starting in 1965 with The Turtles (band), the Turtles cover o ...

, who produced recordings for the Association.

Offer to the Association

Sunshine pop Sunshine pop, originally called soft pop and soft rock, is a loosely defined form of pop music that was first associated with early soft rock producers and songwriters based in Los Angeles, California, during the mid-to late 1960s. Its recording ...

band

had several hits in the mid-1960s, including " Windy" and " Cherish", which went to number one. In 1967, the group's producer,

, asked Jimmy Webb to create a

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

song with 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 and unorthodox lyrics. Ultimately, the song was rejected by the group.

Richard Harris original version

Background and release

"MacArthur Park" was first recorded by

after he met the composer at a

fundraiser Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

East Los Angeles, California East Los Angeles (), or East L.A., is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) situated within Los Angeles County, California, United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, ...

, in late 1967. Webb had been invited to provide the musical backdrop at the piano. Out of the blue, Harris, who had just starred in the 1967 film ''

Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...

'' and had performed several musical numbers in it, suggested to Webb that he wanted to release a record. At first, Webb did not take Harris seriously, but later he received a telegram from Harris requesting that Webb "come to London and make a record". Webb flew to London and played Harris a number of songs for the project, but none seemed to fit Harris for his pop music debut. The last song that Webb played for Harris was "MacArthur Park". The track was recorded on December 21, 1967, at Armin Steiner's Sound Recorders in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. String, woodwind, and brass overdubs were recorded over two sessions on December 29 and 30. The musicians in the original studio recording included members of the 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 Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

on drums,

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles–based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Sim ...

on keyboards,

Joe Osborn Joe Osborn (August 28, 1937 – December 14, 2018Tommy Tedesco Thomas Joseph Tedesco (July 3, 1930 – November 10, 1997) was an American guitarist and studio musician in Los Angeles and Hollywood. He was part of the loose collective of the area's leading session musicians later popularly known as The Wre ...

and

Mike Deasy Michael William Deasy (born February 4, 1941) is an American rock and jazz guitarist. As a session musician, he played on numerous hit singles and albums recorded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He is sometimes credited as Mike De ...

on guitars, along with Webb himself on

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

. The song was included on Harris's album '' A Tramp Shining'' in 1968 and selected for release as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, an unusual choice given the song's length and complex structure. It was released in April 1968 and was played by 77 WABC on Tuesday April 9, 1968. It made its way into the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 79 on May 11, 1968, peaking at number 2 on June 22, 1968, behind

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter, pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, conductor, painter, sculptor and theatre producer, who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (sometimes called "Herb Alpe ...

's "

This Guy's in Love with You "This Guy's in Love with You" is a hit song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and released by Herb Alpert in May, 1968. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on thi ...

". It peaked at number 10 on ''

''s Easy Listening survey and was number 8 on WABC's overall 1968 chart. It topped the music charts in Europe and Australia and also won the 1969 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) at the

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Donna Summer version

Background and release

In August 1978, American singer

released a multi-million selling vinyl single

version of "MacArthur Park". The song reached number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 the week of November 11, 1978, for three weeks, and earned Summer her first nomination for the

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

at the

21st Annual Grammy Awards The 21st Annual Grammy Awards were held in 1979, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1978. Award winners *Record of the Year ** Phil Ramone (producer) & Billy Joel for " ...

. Italian producer

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work ...

recalled that he and his collaborator

Pete Bellotte Peter John Bellotte (born 28 August 1943)Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Inde ...

had been interested in the concept of either remixing a track – as yet undecided on – which had been a hit in the 1960s or else remaking a 1960s hit as a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

track: Moroder – "I remember that I was driving in... on the Hollywood Freeway, and I heard the original song .e. "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harrison the radio. I thought: 'That's it – that's the song we've been looking for for almost a year. Moroder asked

Neil Bogart Neil E. Bogart (born Neil Scott Bogatz, February 3, 1943 – May 8, 1982) was an American record executive. He was the founder of Casablanca Records, which later became Casablanca Record and Filmworks. Life and career Born Neil Scott Bogatz i ...

, president of

Casablanca Records Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label focuses ...

, to provide him with a copy of the Richard Harris version of "MacArthur Park" to serve as the basis for Moroder's envisioned discofied reinvention: Bogart obliged with an

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, ...

containing Harris's version, prompting Moroder to buy an 8-track player in order to hear it. Moroder readily identified "MacArthur Park" as (quote) "a great song for Donna – with all those high notes, it was perfect or her.. First, I ocateda key that she could sing really high, but still with a big voice – that took an hour or two. I played a little piano and she sang it with my accompaniment. We found a key and we had Greg Mathieson do the arrangement – and then I did something very special" – that "something very special" being Moroder's recording of his own voice to form a choir heard behind Summer on the song's chorus: "I recorded about 20 seconds of all the notes, which I was able to sing on a 24-track. I made a loop of those notes, and put that loop in the nowiki/>Solid State Logic">Solid_State_Logic.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Solid State Logic">nowiki/>Solid State Logicdesk. I could form eight chords by having C-E-G right on the group. I played the chords by moving the track according to the chord that I needed." Of basing a discofied arrangement on the template for Webb's arrangement on the Harris version, Moroder recalled: "To be honest, it was a very difficult song to [arrange], especially the brass, but we had the best musicians in town." Summer's recording of "MacArthur Park", included as part of the "MacArthur Park Suite" on her double album ''Live and More'', was eight minutes and forty seconds long. The shorter seven-inch vinyl single version – which omits the song's balladic second movement – afforded Summer her first #1 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also becoming the last of seven hit versions of compositions by Jimmy Webb to reach the Top Ten on the Hot 100, with "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer being the only recording of a Webb composition to top the Hot 100. ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

'' reported that this version produces a "dazzling" effect and that "the syn-drums and inspired production techniques are occasional and dramatic." The nearly 18-minute musical medley "MacArthur Park Suite" incorporated the original songs "One of a Kind" and " Heaven Knows" featuring

Brooklyn Dreams ''Brooklyn Dreams'' is an American comic book limited series written by J. M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Glenn Barr. It was published by the DC Comics imprint, Paradox Press in 1994 and later collected into a trade paperback, published by DC un ...

, the latter being issued as the second single off ''Live and More''. This medley was also sold as a 12-inch (30 cm) vinyl recording, and it stayed at number one on ''Billboard''s

Hot Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set list ...

chart for five weeks in 1978. The versions of this medley in ''Live and More'' and in the 12-inch recording are notably different in the presentation of the two original songs. In the 12-inch version, "Heaven Knows" was extended to incorporate the instrumental string introduction and the bridge horn solo of the single version for radio stations, but left out the second verse, and "One of a Kind" was trimmed of a large part of the instrumental break but included the second verse. Lyrically, Summer's rendition is also curious, in that it adds the word "Chinese" to clarify what type of checkers was being played. "MacArthur Park Suite" was not included on the

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

version of ''Live and More'' because of early CD limitations; however, the album version is available on 1987's '' The Dance Collection: A Compilation of Twelve Inch Singles''. The 12-inch special one-sided disco DJ single has been digitally remastered and included on the '' Bad Girls'' digipak double CD release. In 2012, "Live and More" was remastered in Japan and included the original LP version of the "MacArthur Park Suite". In 2013, the song was remixed by

Laidback Luke Lucas Cornelis van Scheppingen (born 22 October 1976), better known under his stage name Laidback Luke, is a Filipino-born Dutch DJ and record producer. He notably remixed the Robin S. song, "Show Me Love (Robin S. song)#Steve Angello and Laidba ...

for the Donna Summer remix album '' Love To Love You Donna'' (it was also remixed by

Ralphi Rosario Ralphi Rosario is an American house musician and founding member of the influential Chicago DJ group Hot Mix 5. Biography When Hot Mix 5 was formed in 1981 on radio station WBMX (now WVAZ), Rosario, the youngest member of the group, was still in ...

and Frank Lamboy), which was released to dance clubs all over America, having a successful peaking at No. 1, giving Summer her first posthumous No. 1 and her twentieth No. 1 overall.

Legacy

British

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

duo

Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...

used a sample of Summer's version in their 1999 song "

New York City Boy "New York City Boy" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 22 September 1999 as the second single from their seventh studio album, ''Nightlife'' (1999). In the UK, the single peaked at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. ...

" from their album ''

Nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

''. In October 2000,

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

ranked "MacArthur Park" number 89 in their list of "100 Greatest Dance Songs". In June 2020, ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' ranked it number 28 in their "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time" list. In March 2025, ''

'' ranked the song number 73 in their "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time" list.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Other versions

A cover version of "MacArthur Park" was recorded by

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

on his 1969 album ''

Country-Folk Contemporary folk music refers to a wide variety of genres that emerged in the mid-20th century and afterwards which were associated with traditional folk music. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from tradi ...

'', which included the family group the Kimberlys. This version charted at number 23 on the US

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart and number 93 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making its chart debut on August 23, 1969. It also won both acts the 1970

Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded from 1970 to 2011. The award has had several minor name changes: * In 1970 the award was known as Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group * From 1971 to ...

at the

12th Annual Grammy Awards The 12th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 11, 1970. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1969. Award winners *Record of the Year **Bones Howe (producer) & The 5th Dimension for "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" * Album o ...

. It was revisited in 1976 by Jennings, on his album ''

Are You Ready for the Country ''Are You Ready for the Country'' is The 23rd studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1976. Recording and composition ''Are You Ready For the Country'' was the first solo LP Jennings released aft ...

''. In late 1969,

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

's cover from the album ''

Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! ''Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!'' is a 1970 album by American classic pop and jazz singer Tony Bennett. Recorded under pressure from Columbia Records for Bennett to produce more marketable material, it features attempts at songs by the Bea ...

'' reached No. 39 on the US Easy Listening chart and No. 40 Canadian Adult Contemporary. The

Four Tops The Four Tops are an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1953 as the Four Aims. They were one of the most commercially successful American pop music groups of the 1960s and helped propel Motown Records to international fame. The ...

version from their album '' Four Tops Now!'' reached number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 37 in Canada in 1971. The

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

version from his 1972 album ''Love Theme from "The Godfather"'' debuted on the Easy Listening chart in early August and rose to number 26 over the course of five weeks. A cover version of "MacArthur Park" was recorded by Scottish

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

Beggars Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...

on their 1972 album ''

Pathfinder Pathfinder, Path Finder or Pathfinders may refer to: Aerospace * ''Mars Pathfinder'', a NASA Mars Lander * NASA Pathfinder, a high-altitude, solar-powered uncrewed aircraft * Space Shuttle ''Pathfinder'', a Space Shuttle test simulator Arts and ...

''. Their eight-minute version was panned by music critic Paul Stump who said that the band "over-eggs the already indigestible pudding" of the song. In 1993,

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

released a parody of the song, entitled "

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

," as the lead single to his album ''

Alapalooza ''Alapalooza'' is the Weird Al Yankovic discography, eighth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1993 in music, 1993. By the completion of his previous album, ''Off the Deep End'', Yankovic had already wr ...

''. There are at least 218 versions of the song recorded on the

SecondHandSongs SecondHandSongs (or Second Hand Songs) is a collaborative website that maintains a global database of mainly cover versions of original works. It also contains information about Adaptation (arts), adaptations and Sampling (music), samples. The we ...

database.

In popular culture

The song has been featured in a variety of films. Both Harris' and Summer's versions of "MacArthur Park" appear in ''

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ''Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'' is a 2024 American gothic dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. A sequel to ''Beetlejuice'' (1988) and the second film of the ''Beetlejuice'' fran ...

'' (2024); Summers's is heard during the film's opening

production logo A production logo, studio logo, vanity card, vanity plate, or vanity logo is a logo used by Film studio, movie studios and television production company, production companies to brand what they produce and to determine the production company an ...

s and closing credits, while, in a similar manner as " Day-O" in

the first film ''The First Film'' is a 2015 British documentary film about cinema pioneer Louis Le Prince, made by David Nicholas Wilkinson. It argues the case that Le Prince, rather than the Lumière brothers, was the true inventor of moving pictures, making ...

, Harris's version is performed during a wedding scene, where it is lip-synched and danced to by the cast. Figure skater Alysa Liu skated to a shortened version of "MacArthur Park Suite" for her free skate program during the 2024-2025 season.

References

External links

Cite from Fred Bronson, ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'', Billboard, 1988

{{Authority control 1968 singles 1972 singles 1978 singles Songs written by Jimmy Webb Richard Harris songs Andy Williams songs Donna Summer songs Waylon Jennings songs Tony Bennett songs Glen Campbell songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Song recordings produced by Giorgio Moroder Song recordings produced by Pete Bellotte RCA Records singles Pop ballads Rock ballads Songs about Los Angeles Torch songs Four Tops songs Song recordings produced by Frank Wilson (musician) 1968 songs 1960s ballads Dunhill Records singles Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals Casablanca Records singles Number-one singles in Australia RPM Top Singles number-one singles Folk ballads 1960s in Irish music

Composition

Offer to the Association

Richard Harris original version

Background and release

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Donna Summer version

Background and release

Legacy

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Other versions

In popular culture

See also

References

External links