That song is firmly in the “so good it’s bad” folder in my brain. If it comes on the radio, I won’t turn the dial.
Best song ever? hardly?
Good? You bet! I’ve loved it since it was new. Being a young whippersnapper I didn’t know Richard Harris the singer was the same Richard Harris the actor I liked.
But the discoshit? Fuck that. What the hell were they thinking? Forget the disco arrangement, the worst thing Summer did was change “checkers” to…“Chinese checkers”?? What exactly did that add? It’s like the 70s were shitting on the 60s because they could. “We’re in charge now, old farts. Disco will live FOREVER!”
Beautifully parodied in Pearls Before Swine, a Vietnam War musical by the Sydney musical impresario Lamont Cranston as ‘Centennial Park’, complete with Richard Harris-inspired pomposity and lush orchestration on the Jimmy Webb lyrics,
‘I heard you say that life’s a piece of cake
But you can’t have your cake and eat it,
Because the cake you baked is made of lies. Lies! All lies!’
Lovely stuff.
Yep. AFAIK no one ever treated the song as silly parody (excepting Bloom Country comic Strip).
Richard Harris and everyone did it straight up. It is a difficult song.
I’ll never bake that cake agaiiiin. Agaiiiiiin!
That’s just me 'avin a go at parody.
Dave Barry wrote the book (literally) on Bad Songs and the winner (?) was…
Probably to fit the meter, and match the first line of that verse.
I’ve read a couple of biographies where it’s come up, and my favorite was Jimmy Webb’s story of trying to record Richard Harris. He’d sing “MacArthur’s Park is melting…”
“That’s MacArthur Park, Richard!”
"Oh, it is? No ‘S’? All right, I’ll do it again…
MacArthur’s Park is melting…"
Listen to it, he never did get it right!
Cf. “Music is my aeroplane”
How much respect do you folks have for Dave Barry? I’ve been reading his columns and books for years, and aside from the inimitable classic PG Wodehouse – the Shakespeare of humourous writing – Dave Barry is my favourite humour writer. Certainly the best living one.
And this is what he had to say on this particular subject. This is quoted from Google’s “AI Summary”, but I do remember and can attest to the fact that “MacArthur Park” made it to the top of his reader-sponsored list as the worst song of all time. Note also the famously bad competition that it beat for the #1 spot of badness! 
Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry crowned “MacArthur Park” (sung by Richard Harris, written by Jimmy Webb) as the Worst Overall Song and the song with the Worst Lyrics.
His nationwide survey resulted in thousands of votes and eventually became the basis for the book, Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs. Barry noted that its pretentiously incomprehensible lyrics (including the infamous lines about leaving the cake out in the rain and sweet green icing flowing down) made it the ultimate “bad song”.
Other songs that scored high on his infamous list include:
“Yummy Yummy Yummy (I Got Love In My Tummy)” by the Ohio Express
“(You’re) Having My Baby” by Paul Anka
“Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro
“Timothy” by The Buoys
“Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus
The best version of MacArthur Park was done on SCTV. Yes, I know it was Dave Thomas lip-synching to the Harris version, but it was hilarious.
I almost prefer the Donna Summer version, though. I find the Harris version to plod a little in spots; the Summer version keeps it moving with its disco beat.
It’s not my favorite song, but I like it.
OTOH, I’ve been fascinated for years by the question of exactly what the rest of the song was like. As many of you know, Webb wrote an entire cantata about his recent break-up and wanted The Association to record it. They felt it was too long, though they were apparently interested in recording the “MacArthur Park” section by itself. Webb declined. Webb went on later to state that he “lost” the remainder of the cantata.
I have always felt that this would have made a great subject for an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. Would a performance of the entire cantata make “MacArthur Park” better in comparison? Worse? Would it provide important context? I would really like to know.
I’d say to the contrary, the Summer cover may have helped people further embrace its absurdity and surely extended its relevance life by reaching far more ears than the Harris version. In the end discovering that both versions were over-the-top spectacles was fun.
As with other phrasing decisions mentioned, went better with the beat.
I’ve never heard the song to remember it, but this discussion recalls something.
In the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, when the band was discussing with the record company guy whether to release the long song BH as the first single from their new album, Mercury’s assistant points out that another hit song was also long. Wasn’t it MacArthur Park that he mentioned? If so, that explains the pained looks that the band gave him.
As is often the case, I prefer Weird Al’s version.
A lot of what was on Top 40 radio in 1968 were two-and-a-half-minute ditties. Some of them were good ditties, but they were all no more than 3 minutes. “MacArthur Park” was a such a departure from that formula that it stood out. To my 16 year-old ears, it sounded “deep.” Who cared if little of it made sense? And Richard Harris was a “hip” actor at the time.
I don’t think it’s a bad song at all. Jimmy Webb was/is a national treasure who wrote many, many songs that formed the soundtrack of the mid-to-late 1960s, songs that still hold up today as great songs. He can be forgiven for indulging in some bombastic bullshit.
I should add that as an AM Top 40 DJ in the 1970s I played the Donna Summer version and didn’t like it at all. The Richard Harris version is definitive.
Given the timeframe, probably American Pie, maybe Papa Was A Rolling Stone but I’d say the former. Eight minutes, plus you have to get up and flip the 45. 
I think Freddie would have done an awesome version.
Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs is the funniest book ever written in the history of the world. Unfortunately, you have to be in the right demographic to “get it”.
Lots of times I’ll be listening to the radio, hear one of the songs featured, and his commentary will pop into my head. Regarding the Donna Summer version of MacArthur Park, it was “Oh NOOOOOOOOOO…” 
No, it was MacArthur Park. It’s also a line written ten years ago for a movie, probably not an actual quote from 1970-whatever..
No shit? Explains why I don’t remember it.
[looks at IMDB]
Whew! Only 8. I don’t feel as old. I’m gonna go bop my head now. (Galileo!)
In real life, someone would have rebutted with “What about Hey Jude?, let’s press this sucker!”