Music Review: Donna Summer’s ‘MacArthur Park’(1978)
Tangenterine Dream! Now expanded to five paragaphs!!!!!
Tangenterine Dream is a series of short posts on records from my vinyl collection that are a little — or a lot — off the beaten path.
In a small town in the Hawkeye State, an 8-year-old listens intently as local FM radio reads a snatch of lyrics and asks listeners to phone in with the artist and song title: “Someone left the cake out in the rain . . .” The boy’s parents dial the number, everyone waits breathlessly while after each number the dial rotates back into place . . . and they get through! “That’s ‘MacArthur Park’ by Richard Harris!” the boy squeaks. “That’s right!” the DJ replies, and if I ever got a prize, I’ve forgotten.
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Irish actor and thespian Richard Harris’s “MacArthur Park,” written by Jimmy Webb, has long puzzled and amused. The lyrics are weird (a melting park and a cake in the rain?) and clunky (recipes and pajamas?), much like the music, which shifts time signatures, tempos and moods, and at over seven minutes, it’s long for the radio. Nonetheless, it hit high on the charts in 1967. That’s because its swelling strings, lovelorn lyrics, and the Dumbledore actor’s melodramatic presentation are strangely evocative. We’ve forgotten how to be this sincere.
The next decade, Donna Summer recorded dance versions of “MacArthur Park.” Always given to thinking bigger with disco than any of her peers, she worked in collaboration with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte to craft a smashing hit. The single edit is 3:59 in length and leaves out many of Harris’s excursions. On the double album Live and More, she used the song to bookend an over 17-minute “MacArthur Park Suite,” medleying in other songs. However, a roughly eight-minute version composed solely of “MacArthur Park” does exist, and that’s what I always thought I had on vinyl.
The truth is odder. My Japanese release of the 7-inch single from Casablanca Records has the appearance of being the long album version, with Side A labeled Part 1 and Side B labeled Part 2, which would require listeners to flip the record in mid-song. Part 1 ends abruptly and Part 2 begins abruptly, adding to the illusion of one long track unfortunately divided in two due to the constraints of 7-inch vinyl. On close listening, however, Side A is the complete short single edit and Side B is just the back end of that same edit, starting with verse 2. I can’t explain it.
The quirks of international pressings aside, the Queen of Disco’s version is glorious. It opens maudlin, like Harris’s version, but quickly builds before bringing in a thumpin’ beat and the types of spaced-out sythesizer pongs and hwoots you only hear in Seventies disco. Once she gets going, Summer’s vocals are on the belter side, powerful but emotive, and just when you think she might hit a shrill high note, she dials it down. Whose version is best? I’ll let you decide:
Richard Harris: “MacArthur Park”
Donna Summer: “MacArthur Park” (single version)
