The week before the women’s figure skating event took place at the Olympics, Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park received an average of 12,000 streams per day. During the week following Alysa Liu’s gold medal winning free skate, streams for the same song surged to an average of 139,000 per day, and sales of the song increased 575%.
In the 24 hours after Alysa’s performance, streams of the song soared 1292% on Spotify. This week, MacArthur Park is #1 on Billboard’s Dance Digital Song Sales chart, marking Donna Summer’s fourth post-humous #1 song.
This is the third time that Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park has been #1. The first time was in 1978 when it spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. Following her death in 2012, Laidback Luke released a remix of MacArthur Park as part of a Donna Summer remix album. His version went to #1 on the now inactive Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.
MacArthur Park was written by Jimmy Webb (who also wrote Wichita Lineman and Up, Up, and Away), inspired by his relationship with a girlfriend who worked across the street from MacArthur Park. The Association (famous for their songs Windy and Cherish) had asked Webb to write a song with different movements, but when presented with MacArthur Park, they chose not to record it.
Later that year, Webb was invited to play the piano at a fundraiser, where he met Richard Harris (probably best known to the youths as Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies), who had just starred in the film version of Camelot. Harris told Webb he wanted to record an album and had Webb fly to London to help him. Webb brought several songs, and Harris selected MacArthur Park to include on his debut album. His version peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967.
In 1969, Waylon Jennings recorded a cover of MacArthur Park with The Kimberlys that made it to #23 on Billboard’s U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. His version won a Grammy in 1970 (Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal).
The same year, Tony Bennett also recorded a version which reached #39 on the U.S. Easy Listening chart.
In 1971, the Four Tops recorded a version that made it to #38 on the Hot 100.
Andy Williams recorded MacArthur Park in 1972 and his version reached #26 on the Easy Listening chart.
Musical theater star Elaine Paige recorded a version for her album Love Hurts in 1985. MacArthur Park was not released as a single but the album reached #5 in the UK.
In 1993, Weird Al recorded a parody of MacArthur Park (Jurassic Park). The music video was nominated for a Grammy. Jimmy Webb loved this version and often invited Yankovic onstage to sing the Jurassic Park version.
Alysa’s exhibition song, Stateside by PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson, jumped from 41 to 13 this week.
Bonus: cute video of Alysa and Daniel Radcliffe meeting backstage at the Today Show and they were equally excited. Alysa offered to let him wear her gold medal and his reaction was very wholesome.
