Donna Summer’s Hit “MacArthur Park” Was First Recorded by Richard Harris, the Original Dumbledore

In 1978, Donna Summer scored a No. 1 disco hit with “MacArthur Park.” This was Summer’s first Grammy nomination as well, as the song earned her a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

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Summer’s version of the song became an iconic disco reimagining with the help of producer Giorgio Moroder. He was looking for a song for Summer to remix for about a year when he heard “MacArthur Park” on the radio. Working from the original recording, Moroder found the highest key Summer could sing in and arranged the new version from there.

Donna Summer’s voice shone, of course. But Moroder included something in the recording process that made it legendary. Recording his own voice in a loop, he created a choir behind Summer’s vocals by combining his 20-second recordings into chords.

The overall effect of Donna Summer’s version of the song was immediate, but it has also had a lasting legacy. “MacArthur Park” has been included on several best dance song lists from VH1, Billboard, and Slate Magazine. Additionally, a remix of the song from 2013 earned Summer her first posthumous No. 1 hit and 20th overall.

The Original Version of “MacArthur Park” Has Bittersweet Origins

Before Donna Summer turned “MacArthur Park” into a disco dance hit, it had much humbler origins. Written in 1967 by Jimmy Webb, it was first recorded by Irish actor and singer Richard Harris. Many recognize Harris now as the original Dumbledore from the Harry Potter movies. But he built a prolific career in music and film long before starring as an old wizard.

“MacArthur Park” itself is based off of a bittersweet relationship Webb had with Susie Horton. The two would meet for lunch in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles and spend time together there. According to Webb, the park was the backdrop of some of their best times.

“Everything in the song was visible,” Webb once explained in a 2014 interview. “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.”

He continued. “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.”

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