Congrats to Noel and Doug:
"MacArthur Park"
Was "Alice's Restaurant" that long in its air-play version?
Background you may or may not be interested in: (:>)
This song is legendary as regards many things: it's length, that actor
Richard Harris was the artist, and, of course, the unending curiosity and
discussion about what the lyrics mean. ("Someone left the cake out in the
rain..." etc.!)
The song itself was the Coda of a 33-minute cantata (yes, cantata) that Webb
composed. His concept was that it would be a cantata but with individual
songs that could stand alone. He originally hoped The Association would
record it as a complete record side but eventually they declined.
in a bio of Richard Harris comes the following paragraph:
"A year later, he was approached by his friend, songwriter Jimmy Webb, with
a proposed epic-length pop project, and Harris agreed to record it. The
recording was eventually placed with Lou Adler's Dunhill label, and the song
"MacArthur Park," clocking in at seven-and-a-half minutes, rose to number
two on the American charts and shattered AM radio's established prohibition
against playing singles of greater than three-and-a-half minutes' length.
The accompanying album A Tramp Shining was one of the great pop LPs of the
1960s, a sophisticated and extraordinarily well-produced concept album
(which owed a considerable debt to Sgt. Pepper's) to rival any of Sinatra's
efforts in that direction."
--Richard
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