“MacArthur Park” by Richard Harris

Jimmy Webb wrote every word and note of "MacArthur Park", and the first man to put it on tape, in 1967, was an Irish actor who also sang: Richard Harris, who gave it a home on his album A Tramp Shining. It's orchestral pop at its most extravagant and unembarrassed, a record that swings for the rafters and means every bit of it.

Harris rode it all the way to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and to number 4 in Britain, and Webb collected the 1969 Grammy for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for his work on it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.