Lyrics to
MacArthur Park

This version of Macarthur Park was released by Donna Summer in 1978.

Our Decade Lyrics Donna Summer profile has all of the Macarthur Park lyrics from 1978 and many more songs from the Donna Summer discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Donna Summer or about the 1970s in general.

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

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, nooooo

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground beneath your knees
The birds like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing chinese checkers by the trees

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, nooooo

MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down
Someone left my cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to make it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, nooooo

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Want more lyrics and songs by Donna Summer?

Donna Summer has released many songs over the years besides Macarthur Park. Donna Summer released songs from 1974 to 1996 spanning across albums like Lady Of The Night, Love To Love You Baby, Four Seasons Of Love, A Love Trilogy, Once Upon A Time, I Remember Yesterday, Live And More, Bad Girls, The Wanderer, Donna Summer, She Works Hard For The Money, Cats Without Claws, All Systems Go, Another Place And Time, Mistaken Identity, Christmas Spirit, and I'm A Rainbow. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Donna Summer.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Macarthur Park by Donna Summer

When you decide to study the lyrics to Macarthur Park, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1978 song by Donna Summer. Some of the lyrics to Macarthur Park have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Donna Summer and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Macarthur Park if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Macarthur Park" means the words set to the music of Macarthur Park, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Donna Summer. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Macarthur Park and the lyrics to Macarthur Park are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Donna Summer who came here looking just for the lyrics to Macarthur Park, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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