The Sixties were full of very polarizing songs, none more so than this Jimmy Webb composition which was first turned down by the Association. In 1992, columnist Dave Barry declared it the worst song of all time. I beg to differ. It’s a rather intricate arrangement, if you can mentally set aside the, ummm, challenging lyrics delivered by hard-living Irish actor Richard Harris. The Wrecking Crew was at their finest providing the backing music. At 7:20, this and “Hey Jude” were the longest hit singles of the time. Webb used to meet his then-girlfriend at the park for lunch; the actual MacArthur Park in L.A. then fell on hard times, becoming rather unsavory. A disco remake by Donna Summer topped the charts in 1978.
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Perhaps the song's theme, that of an artistic baker who recreates the intricate nuances of the park via an exotic cake which then gets ruined when someone negligent leaves it outside on a day it rains, was meant to be a metaphor for the real-life degeneration of a once-classy public park.
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