Oklahoma songwriter's classic 1960s hit gets revived in new 'Beetlejuice' movie

In 1988, Tim Burton's cult-classic movie "Beetlejuice" showcased Harry Belafonte's version of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” in a comedically haunting way that forever altered people's perceptions of the updated Jamaican folk tune.

Now, the long-awaited hit sequel "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is adding another chapter to the already strange history of a surprising 1960s smash from Songwriters Hall of Famer and Oklahoma native Jimmy Webb.

Starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" features a quirky climactic musical sequence set at a macabre wedding and scored to Webb's pop ballad "MacArthur Park."

It's another intriguing layer in the musical confection that has towered over Webb's stellar songwriting career, which has included iconic hits like "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "Up, Up and Away," "The Highwayman" and more.

"I've distilled my responses to questions about ‘MacArthur Park' … down to this general statement: There's nothing in ‘MacArthur Park' that I didn't see with my own eyes,'" Webb told The Oklahoman in a 2013 interview.

"It's not about drugs. It's not about acid. There's no real mystery. Everything that I wrote about in that quite long song, I saw in MacArthur Park when I was a kid dating the love of my life, you know, going crazy over this girl."

What is the story behind the song 'MacArthur Park,' featured in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?'

An Elk City native who grew up in Laverne, Webb, who turned 78 in August, launched his songwriting career when he relocated to Los Angeles, where he and his then-girlfriend would meet for lunch dates at the real-life MacArthur Park.

He penned the song of the same name in 1967 after their breakup, with the infamous lines that "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" becoming a metaphor for his heartbreak.

Perhaps because of its unusual orchestral grandeur, Webb told The Oklahoman in a 2017 interview that the song has always mystified many listeners, despite what he feels is its fairly literal storytelling.

“If you look at the contemporary era, there are songs there that are clearly encrypted. There's songs like ‘The Day the Music Died,' a song like ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale,' ‘Strawberry Fields,'” Webb told The Oklahoman. “But ‘MacArthur Park' … I was really just recounting physical events and objects that I had seen in that park on Wilshire Boulevard with my girlfriend, who I had an obsession with. And really our relationship ended in that park when she told me she was marrying another guy."

Webb offered the song to the pop group The Association, but they declined to record it. Later in 1967, he met Irish actor Richard Harris (who went on to play Dumbledore in the initial "Harry Potter" movies), at an antiwar fundraiser in L.A. They struck up a friendship, the idea of making an album got tossed about, and, as Webb recalled in a 2013 essay for The Guardian, he soon received a telegram from Harris that read, “Dear Jimmy Webb. Come to London. Make this record. Love, Richard.”

With its sweeping arrangement and unique lyrics, Harris fell in love with "MacArthur Park" and turned it into the almost 7 1/2-minute highlight of his 1968 album "A Tramp Shining." Shockingly, Harris took the offbeat ode to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest single at that time to become a top 10 hit, and Webb won the 1969 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

Who sings the version of 'MacArthur Park' featured in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?'

That wasn't the end for "MacArthur Park." The next year at the Grammys, country star Waylon Jennings and Oklahoma vocal group the Kimberlys won Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group for their version of "MacArthur Park."

Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, the Four Tops, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Chet Atkins, Liza Minnelli and Glen Campbell have all covered Webb's opus.

In 1978, Donna Summer's disco version of "MacArthur Park" became her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 2013, Summer, who died in 2012, achieved a posthumous No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs when Laidback Luke remixed the ballad as “MacArthur Park 2013” for the tribute album "Love to Love You Donna."

Both Summer's original single version and Harris' initial recording of "MacArthur Park" are included on the "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" soundtrack. (The soundtrack also includes a rendition of "Day-O," which is featured in the sequel as well as in the "Beetlejuice" stage musical.)

Although Harris' epic version is showcased in the big "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" musical number, Summer's cover is in the credits, plus there's a snippet arranged by composer and frequent Burton collaborator Danny Elfman in the film. In an interview with SlashFilm.com, the director said he "didn't really worry about the script or the studio" in picking the song for his sequel's climax.

"I have my own bizarre playlist. Everybody has a playlist. So, that was on mine. ... It wasn't in the script or anything, it's just something that I felt, I don't know, it just fit the spirit of it. And it was a song I liked. It was emotional, it was operatic, and it's sort of bizarrely romantic and grand," Burton said.

What has been the 'MacArthur Park' legacy for Oklahoman Jimmy Webb?

The "Beetlejuice" sequel isn't the first time "MacArthur Park" has been tied to the movies: "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied Harris' version with his 1993 send-up of "Jurassic Park."

The first artist to receive Grammys for music, lyrics, and orchestration, Webb has penned an impressive slew of hits since the 1960s. But "MacArthur Park" has loomed so large in his career that the Oklahoma Hall of Famer titled his 2017 memoir "The Cake and the Rain." At a star-studded Carnegie Hall concert celebrating the book's release, it was his friend and fellow Oklahoman Toby Keith who crooned "MacArthur Park."

In 2017, Webb told The Oklahoman that people have "demonstrated an insatiable curiosity" about the song's meaning over the decades.

“I think ‘The Cake and the Rain’ is a metaphor for the good and the bad — and sometimes the ugly. It’s also probably the thing I’ve been most asked about in my life is the cake and the rain," Webb said.

“It’s about as literal as I can get ... and I’m 100% certain that people will still ask me what it means.”

Given that "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" made $111 million over the weekend — the second-biggest September opening ever at the domestic box office — it seems a good bet that Webb's unusual ode will continue intriguing listeners.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: The new 'Beetlejuice' movie has a classic '60s hit from an Oklahoman