Jimmy Webb, Part 2 (MacArthur Park)

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Bill Price, and in this edition of Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts, I’ll again be spotlighting songwriter, composer and singer Jimmy Webb.  Jimmy’s career in the music industry is impressive, having accumulated a string of pop classics and recorded by several well-known artists.  In Jimmy Webb, Part 2, I’ll focus on the story behind the hit song “MacArthur Park”.

Although, Jimmy Webb is well known for having written many hit songs, “MacArthur
Park” is most likely his most famous composition.  Like other Webb songs, the romantic
breakup with Susan Horton was the inspiration for “MacArthur Park”.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

In this edition of Rock and Roll Flashback, I’ll be spotlighting songwriter, composer and
singer Jimmy Webb. Jimmy’s career in the music industry is impressive, having
accumulated a string of pop classics and recorded by several well-known artists. In part 2, I’ll focus on the story behind the hit song “MacArthur Park”.

Although, Jimmy Webb is well known for having written many hit songs, “MacArthur
Park” is most likely his most famous composition. Like other Webb songs, the romantic
breakup with Susan Horton was the inspiration for “MacArthur Park”.

While attending Colton High School in Southern California, Webb met fellow student
Susan Horton, and began a romantic relationship. After graduating from high school,
Jimmy enrolled in San Bernardino Valley College to study music. In the fall of 1967, I
enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College, however by that time Jimmy had left the
college to pursue a music career. By mid 1965 Jimmy and Susan had moved to Los
Angeles. Webb first worked for Jobete Music, which handled publishing for Motown
records. In 1966 he met Johnny Rivers, a singer and record producer who signed him to a publishing contract. It was during this time when Rivers asked Jimmy to write songs for his new group The Fifth Dimension. The group recorded Webb’s first composition “Up Up and Away”, which became a top ten hit.

Jimmy and Susan met frequently at MacArthur Park located in the Westlake area of Los
Angeles. However, the relationship ended when Susan decide to move to Lake Tahoe,
to work in the casino showrooms. She later married but it did not last. In spite of the
breakup, they both remained friends in the following years. Susan’s first marriage was
the inspiration for Webb writing “ The Worst That Could Happen”. In December 1968,
it became a hit for Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge, rising to number three by
February 1969. Susan later married Linda Ronstadt’s cousin, Bobby in 1993.

In 1967, producer Dayton “Bones” Howe asked Webb to compose a song that included
classical elements, changes in time signatures and musical movements. Jimmy went to
work meeting the challenge. Howe had intended for The Association, who had recent hits with “Along Comes Mary” and “Cherish”, to record the song. However, when Jimmy
auditioned the composition for the Association, the group was not impressed and rejected it. One major problem was that it was so long, that would take one side of a record album. In response to the length problem, Jimmy shortened the composition to utilize only the last portion, which ran about seven to eight minutes. This ultimately became the basis for “MacArthur Park”. However, it wound up at the bottom of Webb’s song collection. Due to a chance event, the song was destined to become a unique hit
recording.

By the close of 1967, Jimmy had managed to become a rising talent due to his best
selling compositions. This enabled him to attend numerous social gathering s. It was at
one of the gatherings that he met Irish actor Richard Harris. Richard decided he wanted to sing old pub songs, so along with Jimmy they found a piano and became drinking and
singing buddies. At the end of the evening, Richard said, “ Let’s make a record, Jimmy Webb”. Always calling him Jimmy Webb, never Jimmy. Webb never thought anything would ever materialize from Harris’s comment. However, not long after, Webb received a telegram from Harris stating, “Jimmy Webb, come to London and make a record”. So Webb traveled to London with a collection of songs. Jimmy auditioned several of his
compositions, but none made an impression with Richard. The last song that remained
was “McArthur Park”. Upon playing it for Harris, he uttered, “Oh Jimmy Webb, I love
that! I’ll make a hit out of that, I will”.

In late December 1967, Webb along with famous musicians known as The Wrecking Crew recorded the orchestral tracks in Los Angeles, and then Harris recorded the vocal track in Dublin, Ireland. Since the song ran for seven minutes and twenty-one seconds, it proved to be difficult to convince record labels to release a long single. Eventually, Lou Adler at Dunhill Records agreed do the single along with an album.

The “MacArthur Park” single, was released ahead of the album in April 1968. On May 11, “MacArthur Park” charted at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later, on June 22, it peaked at No. 2 behind Herb Alpert’s number one hit “This Guy’s in Love With You” and ahead of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson”. On the B-side, was “Didn’t We?” which achieved modest success. “MacArthur Park” sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. It also topped the music charts in Europe and Australia.
“MacArthur Park” would later win a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist.

In 1968, Webb and his father attended a Frank Sinatra performance at one of the Las
Vegas casinos. At one point during the show, Sinatra had Jimmy stand up in the audience and take a bow, and then performed Webb’s song, “Didn’t We?” Frank would also include the song on his 1969 album, “My Way”.

In 1969, Waylon Jennings did a country version of “MacArthur Park” on his album
Country-Folk. This version charted at No. 23 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 93 on the pop chart. It also earned a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a
Duo or Group.

In addition to the Webb and Harris collaboration on “MacArthur Park,” they also
produced an entire Richard Harris album, titled “A Tramp Shining – with eleven songs
composed by Webb.

In the latter part of 1978, about ten years after Harris’ version of “MacArthur Park”,
Donna Summer recorded and released a disco version of the song. Summer’s version
climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November, and remained at number
one for three weeks, making the song a million seller for a second time.

In addition to Donna Summer and Waylon Jennings, several artists have recorded over
150 cover versions. Some artists include Tony Bennett, Liza Minelli, Dionne Warwick,
Andy Williams, Sammy Davis Jr, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Diana Ross
and the Supremes and Carrie Underwood.

In July 2004, on The Late Show With David Letterman, the entire broadcast, called
‘MacArthur Park Night’ featured the song. A complete performance of the song included Webb playing the harpsichord along with Paul Shaffer on piano, Will Lee on vocal, and a 23-piece orchestra. There was even a big cake, with “sweet green icing”, a reference to a couple of the lines in the song “All the sweet, green icing flowing down” and “Someone left the cake out in the rain”.

In 1986, Webb was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 1990 into the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1993 he received the National Academy of
Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018 London newspaper The Telegraph
placed Harris’ version of ”MacArthur Park” at number 85 in the newspaper’s ranking of
the “100 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

Beatles producer Sir George Martin stated that ”MacArthur Park” paved the path for
“Hey Jude” which reached number one in July 1968, and ran for seven minutes and
eleven seconds. At seven minutes and twenty-one seconds, ”MacArthur Park” was the
longest single to achieve top ten hit status at that time.

Check out Jimmy Webb part one, which covers Jimmy’s rise to fame and the story
behind the hit song “Up, Up and Away”.

This has been a look back at Jimmy Webb and the story behind the song ”MacArthur
Park”.