On Saturday, June 14, 2003, at 09:04 PM, Richard Huggins wrote:
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.
I don't know if this is actually true. "Light My Fire Came" came out in 1967, the year before "MacArthur Park." While it's true that The Doors released a shorter, radio-friendly version of "Light My Fire" for AM airplay, the long version was all over FM radio, and may have been played by some AM stations as well.
"Hey Jude" came out in 1968, the same year as "MacArthur Park," but I don't know the exact date of release, so I can't say whether it predates "MacArthur Park" or not. But "Hey Jude" was a *huge* number-one hit, much bigger than "MacArthur Park." There's no question that it was played (a *lot*) on AM radio, full-length and unedited, so if in fact the single was released before "MacArthur Park," you'd have to give The Beatles the credit for breaking the AM song-length barrier.
- Darcy
----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston MA
No one likes us I don't know why We may not be perfect But heaven knows we try But all around, even our old friends put us down Let's drop the Big One and see what happens
- Randy Newman, "Political Science"
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