“MacArthur Park” (Richard Harris/Donna Summer)

Today’s classic Jimmy Webb song of the day is perhaps his most famous. “MacArthur Park” was a hit twice, first for Richard Harris in 1968 and ten years later, in a discofied version, for Donna Summer.

Jimmy Webb wrote “MacArthur Park” as a reflection on the end of his short but sweet love affair with a girl named Suzy Horton. The couple would occasionally meet for lunch and spend time together in the real MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. All the seemingly odd imagery in the song, including the green cake melting in the rain, were actual observations by Mr. Webb, as he relates here:

“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.”

Jimmy and Suzy met while they were in high school together in Colton, California. She was the muse for many of Jimmy’s most famous hits, including “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Where’s the Playground, Suzie,” “Didn’t We,” and “The Worst That Could Happen.” After one failed marriage (after which she briefly hooked up with Jimmy again), Suzy ended up marrying Linda Ronstadt’s cousin, Bobby, and has been happily married to him since 1993. After all these years, here’s how Suzy thinks of her former boyfriend:

“Jimmy’s songs have followed me my whole life and we are still friends to this day. Jimmy has a lovely wife and I have a wonderful husband. They have both had to deal with our histories. I mean no disrespect to anyone but I have to say, I have loved Jimmy for 50 years and I always will.”

“MacArthur Park” came to life as a challenge from producer Bones Howe to write a classically structured, multiple-movement piece for the Association, with whom Mr. Howe was working at the time. In response, Mr. Webb wrote and delivered “MacArthur Park” to that group, who rejected it. Their loss.

The song instead went to Richard Harris, who had just starred in the film musical of Camelot. Mr. Harris and Mr. Webb met at a fundraiser in Los Angeles in late 1967, and the actor asked the songwriter to “come to London and make a record.” Jimmy played several songs for him, the last being “MacArthur Park.” Mr. Harris chose that one.

The Richard Harris version of “MacArthur Park” was released as a single in April of 1968. Despite its length and complexity, that version went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit #1 in Canada and Australia. (It only hit #4 in the singer’s native UK, for some reason.)

The basic track for Harris’ version was recorded on December 21, 1967, at Armin Steiner’s Sound Recorders in Hollywood. That track was laid down by members of L.A.’s famed Wrecking Crew, including Tommy Tedesco and Mike Deasy on guitars, Larry Knecthel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass, and the ubiquitous Hal Blaine on drums. Jimmy Webb himself played harpsichord. Those pros recorded the song in a single take, no stops or overdubs. Given the shifting time signatures and tempos, that’s an incredible feat and a sign of superb musicianship—especially in contrast to today’s world of Pro Tools for everyone and incessant digital editing.

Note a few things about Richard Harris’ version. First, Mr. Harris really wasn’t a trained vocalist, so all the high notes were performed by studio singers. Also, he insisted on singing “MacArthur’s Park” when the name of the song and the real-life park is MacArthur Park, singular and non-possessive. Whatever. It was still a remarkable recording.

Ten years later, disco diva Donna Summer decided to cut her own version of the song. This track, released as a single in September of 1978, was produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and featured a heavy disco beat and then-hip synthesizer effects. Summer’s version, despite her retaining Richard Harris’ “MacArthur’s Park” lyric, went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, and Billboard Hot Disco Singles charts. It was Jimmy Webb’s first and only number-one recording.

“MacArthur Park,” for all its complexity, is one of the most recorded songs in Jimmy Webb’s impressive catalog. It’s been covered by artists as diverse as Waylon Jennings, the Four Tops, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Long John Baldry, Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick, the Lettermen, Amii Stewart, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Floyd Cramer, Larry Carlton, and the Ukulele Chorus of Great Britain. The song was also arranged by just about every major big band in the late ’60s and early ’70s; I particularly liked the versions by the Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, and Maynard Ferguson’s bands. (Here’s the Stan Kenton Orchestra playing it live in 1972 with the great John “Baron” Von Ohlen sweating it out on drums.)

Back in 2010, my wife and I had the great pleasure of seeing Jimmy Webb at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis. It was just Jimmy, sitting at his piano, singing his greatest songs and telling even greater stories. Mr. Webb may be an even better storyteller than he is a tunesmith, and that’s saying something. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve spent, purely because Jimmy has so many great stories about people famous and not in the music industry. If you ever get the opportunity to spend an evening with Jimmy Webb, do it. It will be memorable.

And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, from the July 21, 2014, episode of The Late Show with David Letterman. Dave requested the band play this song for his son Harry, who had been forced by his dad to listen to “MacArthur Park” on the satellite radio until he screamed, “That’s enough cake!” So Dave had his pal Paul Shaffer assemble a big-ass orchestra and let bassist Will Lee (wearing a striped pair of pants) sing his heart out. Oh, and he brought along Jimmy Webb hisself to play his original harpsichord part. Pretty damned cool—and definitely one of the top ten musical moments from ol’ Dave’s late night shows.