Like a creature from a pop song horror movie, “MacArthur Park,” the epic seven-minute single written by Jimmy Webb and unleashed on the world to chart-topping success by the late actor Richard Harris, has new life.
In its latest chapter, “MacArthur Park” has been resurrected via its use (both the Harris and Donna Summer’s disco versions) in Tim Burton’s latest cinematic effort, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” With reportedly 218 versions of this earworm floating around, it’s the gift that keeps on giving, which is music to composer Webb’s ears and is sure to be included as part of the setlist for his upcoming show at Roslyn’s My Father’s Place.
“It’s unstoppable,” Webb said with a laugh. “I actually sent Tim Burton, who I don’t know, a little email thanking him for reviving my monster. And he wrote back, ‘Thank you for the opportunity to work with your monster.’ It was just a one-line correspondence but it was like, I know you’re there and I appreciate you for what you did. That’s really all that needs to be said. When he was doing this movie, I think the image of the monster is appropriate when you apply it to ‘MacArthur Park’ because it is so big and overpowering. I think that sort of fit the movie because there’s a craziness to it. In some strange way, he locked onto that and I think this song and movie are coming from the same shelf.”
Fresh off writing the 1968 Grammy Award-winning hit “Up-Up and Away” for The Fifth Dimension, Webb took up the challenge by Fifth Dimension producer/engineer Bones Howe to indulge his “repressed classicist tendencies” and write “Something with a classical flair that had movements and different tempos.
A full orchestra and repeating themes.” Webb took Howe up on the challenge and after composing it, hopped into his Camaro and headed over to the studio to offer the freshly composed “MacArthur Park” to pop outfit The Association (“Along Comes Mary,” “Cherish”) whose next album Howe was producing. It was subsequently rejected, a fact the producer took harder than its composer.
“I didn’t know the outcome until later that night,” Webb explained. “Bones told me they turned it down and then he said after I left that he told them that after ‘MacArthur Park’ goes Top 10 on the Billboard charts, he was no longer their producer. I said that sounded a bit dramatic and he said I created something fantastic and they turned their noses up at it. I didn’t take it personally.”
With that rejection fresh in his mind, Webb consigned the song to the bottom of his pile of song ideas (“That’s the way songwriters are about songs once they’ve been turned down. They’ve got the Curse of Job on them.”), when he jetted over to London to work with Harris, who was coming off the film musical “Camelot” and was looking to record an album. Amidst quite a bit of drinking and carousing, Webb ran out of songs when the Irish actor asked if he had any other ideas left.
“I hauled it out, put it on top of the piano and started playing the intro—it was very classical sounding, dare I say Wagnerian almost,” Webb recalled. We reached the first verse and right then and there, [Harris] smacked his hand down on the grand piano so hard that it if would have been me, I would have broken my hand. He hit that piano so hard that it sounded like a shot went off and he said, ‘I’ll have that Jimmy Webb. And I’ll make a hit out of that. And I, Richard Harris, will make a hit out of that song and I’ll be a pop star.’”
“MacArthur Park” topped the charts in Europe and Australia, peaked at number two behind Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You” in 1968 and won the 1969 Grammy For Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).
This tale and more are what attendees can expect to hear when they come out to see Webb play in Roslyn. It’s a homecoming for the Bayville resident, who has come to embrace Long Island following his marriage to PBS host/producer Laura Savini.
“Long Island has been so grand to me, particularly after I came here following a difficult divorce with children involved,” Webb said. “At the end of My Father’s Place gig, I’m inviting my fans to stay and join me for a Christmas carol sing-along. It’s a family tradition and we’ll have a link for lyrics that will pull up on a QR code. I think this could be a beautiful moment.”
Jimmy Webb will be appearing on Dec. 20 at @ My Father’s Place at the Roslyn Hotel, 1221 Old Northern Blvd., Roslyn. For more information, visit www.myfathersplace.com or call 516-625-2700.
