How ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Gave New Life to Jimmy Webb’s Epic “MacArthur Park”

There’s a troubling moment in “MacArthur Park” where someone leaves a cake out in the rain and the singer laments he’ll never again have the recipe.

Jimmy Webb’s 1968 epic, originally recorded by Richard Harris, has found a new life in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 film. The cake tragedy from Webb’s song echoes the kind of comedic horror Burton directs.

Burton uses the Harris original for the film’s climax and Donna Summer’s disco cover to open and close the film—Beetlejuice’s wedding song and intro and outro music.

A Songwriting Legend

The track is part baroque pop and part easy listening, but the grandiose arrangement and lengthy running time are anything but easy. Still, “MacArthur Park” charted with multiple versions recorded by Harris, Summer, and The Four Tops, among others.

However, Webb is no stranger to writing hit songs. Glen Campbell scored big hits with “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “Galveston.”

Webb’s song “Highwayman” became an outlaw country anthem and the inspiration for a supergroup featuring Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.

But “MacArthur Park” isn’t as easily accessible as “Highwayman” or “Wichita Lineman.” Those are three-minute numbers with standard arrangements. Instantly classic. Instead, “MacArthur Park” is a multi-movement composition meant to be part of an even larger work. It uses a cake metaphor to detail a failing romance. Its strangeness is the perfect companion piece for a Tim Burton film.

It’s Too Long

A seven-and-a-half-minute song is conventionally too long for radio. But Webb’s pop suite became a hit anyway. In 2010, he told journalist Terry Gross, “I was very fortunate that way. If it hadn’t been for FM—‘underground’ radio—‘MacArthur Park’ would have never been broken as a single, because Top 40 was not going to play ‘MacArthur Park.’”

Risking the song’s potential for radio play, Webb refused to edit the song. Once radio capitulated to the song’s running time, it became an unstoppable force. Summer’s 1978 disco version topped the Billboard Hot 100 and with it, she earned her first Grammy. It’s also the only time Webb reached No. 1 in the United States.

Meanwhile, producer George Martin told Webb that The Beatles added the long fade to “Hey Jude” after hearing “MacArthur Park.” Even though Bob Dylan had already stretched the attention spans of listeners with “Like a Rolling Stone” in 1965, radio programmers still hesitated to play such a long song just a few years later.

MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
’Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again

A Cataclysmic Breakup Song

MacArthur Park in Los Angeles is a much different place than the romantic one once shared with Webb and his then-girlfriend, Susie Horton. The lyrics confused listeners, but Webb told Variety, “I saw everything I wrote about in the song for a fact.”

He described it as “the cataclysmic breakup song of all time.” Webb was distraught after his relationship with Horton ended, after investing “everything in one person.” Though he and Horton remained friends, he expressed his despair in the multipart suite. Then the biggest music acts on the planet kept recording it.

The song’s complexity matches the diversity of artists who’ve recorded it—Frank Sinatra, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Waylon Jennings, and Wayne Kramer have each interpreted “MacArthur Park” in unique ways. Sinatra, for example, takes only the middle verses and adapts them into a standalone song. Webb said the number of recorded versions is now more than 200.

Wedding Song

For 56 years, “MacArthur Park” has traveled a long distance from its chamber pop origins to disco to outlaw country, parody, and now, otherworldly nuptials in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. But you’ll have to watch Burton’s new film to find out if Beetlejuice’s wedding is fated to be the flowing green icing of a destroyed cake in the park.

What does survive is the songwriting genius of Jimmy Webb.

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Photo by Warner Bros/Everett/Shutterstock