A jazzy MacArthur Park

I still have to fully understand what the song MacArthur Park is trying to say but I am sure you will agree that it was a very big hit many years ago and is now considered a classic. Written by Jim Webb, the original version was recorded by country music star Waylon Jennings in 1968. It was only a few months later when the second one was released and it was in the debut album by the late actor Richard Harris who turned recording artist with much success. Many other versions followed including the biggest of them all, a take by Donna Summer that brought the song to the dance floor.

The classically inspired melody still rates a double take but the lyrics of MacArthur Park now reads like a tacky piece of fluff but Buddy Greco, one of the greatest jazz artists of all time has chosen to make it the title track of one of his best albums. The collection was recently reissued, doubtless to take advantage of the current fad by big name singers to mine the vast catalogue of standards. The album is made up of 19 oldies from various eras. What holds the package together is the fact that all of the cuts are part of the great American songbook. They come from famous composers like Duke Ellington, Satin Doll, Richard Rodgers and Lawrence Hart (My Funny Valentine), and all the way down to Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, (Hungry Years).

It is a formidable line-up that would have fazed most performers. But it is Greco, a legend, at the helm, arranging, producing, playing the piano and singing the songs. He sounds confident with anything, whether swinging to The Lady is a Tramp or snapping the notes of Baubles, Bangles and Beads or going all out dramatic as in MacArthur Park. A former child prodigy who performed with music greats like Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles, Greco has an easy style that belies his precise phrasing. Truth to tell, a lot of artists making their attempts at interpreting the standards these days can learn a thing or two from this expert.

The other songs included are Greco’s big selling single, Around the World, This is All I Ask, She Loves Me, You Better Go Now, Me and Mrs. Jones, The Georgia Road, Like Young, Girl Talk, Touch Me in the Morning, Legacy, Neither One of Us and Passing Pastels. All are old and familiar but Greco, who is turning 80 this year, still has the chops to perform them like nobody else.

Still on MacArthur Park, which has remained one song that never fails to evoke memories of the ‘70s era. Maybe it was because of the disco version by Donna or maybe because the success of Harris’ recording carried over into the next decade. Whatever the reason was, it cannot be denied that the song still brings back images of three decades ago. Think flower power and disco fever, K.C. & The Sunshine Band and the Manhattan Transfer, the Aldeguer Sisters in bell-bottom pants with hair flying all over the place and all-night curfew binges during the Martial Law period.

And as anyone who grew up during that time will tell you, the next song they expect to hear after MacArthur Park is another Jim Webb composition, the bittersweet Didn’t We. Or what about the sassy break-up song Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye? Back then, if you wanted to look cool, you sashay to Undun and although the group was by then defunked, it was imperative that you include some Beatles hits in your personal soundtrack like Here Comes the Sun or George Harrison’s big solo seller Something.

MacArthur Park is not in the album. Go to Buddy Greco for that one. But all of the songs mentioned plus other ’70s tunes like Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, When It Was Done, Holly Holy, Just Like a Woman and Good Morning Starshine can be found in Colours of Love the first CD edition of music by Hugo Montenegro. If I remember right, Montenegro’s biggest hit was the whistling theme from Clint Eastwood’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly but it was for his trendy space age arrangements of pop hits of the ’70s that he is best remembered. Get a taste of them again with this reissue.