November 11, 1978 –
Donna Summer started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with her version of Jimmy Webb’s MacArthur Park, which was also a hit for actor Richard Harris in 1968, (made No.5 in the UK). (Sorry for the earworm.)
Jimmy Webb, whose songwriting credits include Up-Up and Away and By the Time I Get to Phoenix, wrote MacArthur Park in the summer of 1967. He offered it to Bones Howe, who produced The Association, for possible inclusion on the group’s fourth album. Howe loved it, but The Association didn’t want to devote that much space on the album to Webb’s project, so they rejected it.
