In truth, no one did. But this made me laugh, so I share it with you.
Did you hear “MacArthur Park” first by Donna Summer? Richard Harris? No matter, it was written by the acclaimed songwriter Jimmy Webb, and this version features him with backup vocals by Brian Wilson.
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You’ll still be the one.
Some people call it the worst song ever recorded. I think that’s an exaggeration. Webb said this about it in an interview:
Everything in the song was visible. There’s nothing in it that’s fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so it’s a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park. … Back then, I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.
It matches the mood of The Musician at this moment.
The first time I heard MacArthur Park, it was played by Ferrante and Teicher.
The first time I heard that song with lyrics was Wierd Al Yankovic’s Jurasic Park is Frightening in the Dark / All the dinosaurs are run-ning-wild! / Someone shut the fence off in the rain! …
Claymotion video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4zvQfDhi0&list=PL0C4B6EB0858D5907&index=43
Then, knowing it was a parody, I had to listen to the definitive Donna Summer version.
First time I saw or heard Weird Al’s version. Classic! (C’mon, who didn’t cheer when Barney got it?)