And here are the lyrics:

( from www.lyricsdepot.com/richard-harris/macarthur-park.html )

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance

Between the parted pages and were pressed,
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

CHORUS
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
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees

The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

CHORUS
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
Oh, no!

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one.

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky.
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why.

(INSTRUMENTAL INTERLUDE -- Chicago, or even "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams)

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
Oh, no!

Oh, no

No, no

Oh NO!! (upon which Harris suffers an irreversible gender change)

MacArthur Park is indeed a bad song, and having had 40 years to become hated should have cemented its place on that top 10 list. That music video was horrible, mostly due to the music. Great entry, Johnny D, but I have to say that it will take nowhere near 4 decades to consider Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" as a considerably worse composition. I was annoyed after listening to the first 15 seconds of her yodeling; then after hearing the rest of the song I realised that was the best part.

Whatever became of Richard Harris, anyway?

It's a LOT more fun to agree with Johnny D than to disagree with him, but I love "MacArthur Park," in part because it IS so parodable. (Is that a word? It is now.) Ant: Harris, to use your phrase, cemented his place as one of the finest actors ever to come from the British Isles, and died a few years ago, while still under contract to play Professor Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" movies. (He appeared in the first three, and the role has been recast.)

Damn, John Small, I thought the lyrics you posted above WERE a parody of M.P., which I had never heard before. There is now an opening on my late night show for a new host, while I am undergoing therapy.

The Donna Summer version is the more popular redo, but check out the truly awful cover by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter (sorry, I don't have a link. Anybody?).

Red Ant: Richard Harris played Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies, then passed away after a distinguished career as an actor. But as for this song...I agree with Johnny D, it's one of the worst, although arguably Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey" was at least as bad. Which gives me an idea for a mash-up, heh, heh...

I was flabbergasted when by happenstance I was awake late enough Saturday evening December ninth to see Gwen Stefani perform "Wind It Up" live on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." The song is a fantasia or capriccio on "The Lonely Goatherd" from Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstien's Broadway Musical "Sound of Music." I am entertained by this song. I have heard Gwen Stefani is enamoured of "Sound of Music." This song is her tribute to "Sound of Music." She is neither a great composer nor a great musician. We should not expect her to be.

I WAS ALIVE BACK THEN AND YOU WOULD HAVE TO HAVE BEEN ALIVE BACK THEN TO FULLY UN DERSTAND THE SONG! By the way, don't be sued if the damned copywriters don't sue you or try to get you put in jail because you even mentioned the damned song or printed out the lyrics. Those bastards are getting WAY out of line. They are even pulling Village People videos!