What's that song at the end of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?

Everything you need to know about the new Day-O.

One of the strengths of the Beetlejuice original was its wild use of Harry Belafonte’s songs “Jump in the Line (Shake Senora)” and “Day-O,” calypso sounds that were totally unexpected in a ghost movie steeped in old B-movie fantasy and German expressionism. As a result, one of the big challenges of the sequel Beetlejuicewhich has just been released in theaters, was to rival those unforgettable musical moments, which did much to make the 1988 film popular. Tim Burton, a discerning music lover (as he recently proved by including the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” in a cult scene from the series) Wednesday) was not going to be able to simply dip into Belafonte’s discography again, under penalty of coming across as a big slacker.

” You know “MacArthur Park?” the director asked his collaborators during the preparation of the church scene, the high point of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Used in a virtuoso and frankly captivating way in the film’s climax, this piece of baroque and grandiloquent pop is a 1968 hit sung by Richard Harris. Yes, Richard Harris, the Irish actor fromA Man Called Horseof Red desertof Wild ConvoyofRuthlessof Gladiatorand the first two Harry Potterwhere he played Dumbledore.

Richard Harris was in great voice in the late sixties, having just started singing in the musical Camelot. He therefore accepted the proposal of Jimmy Webb (author of some solid gold standards like “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” or “Wichita Lineman”) to record this “MacArthur Park”a song with melancholic lyrics that the composer had written with his former lover in mind (MacArthur Park in Los Angeles is a place where he and his ex used to meet for lunch).

The song had originally been proposed by Jimmy Webb to The Association, who had turned it down, apparently concerned about its unusually long length. This did not scare Harris, a novice singer but a man of character, who recorded the song, which was over seven minutes long, in defiance of the radio conventions of the time – the Beatles’ producer George Martin later explained that the extravagant length of “MacArthur Park” set a precedent that allowed the Fab Four to release “Hey Jude” (also seven minutes) as a single.

Much to Webb’s surprise, “MacArthur Park” (from Richard Harris’ debut album, A Tramp Shining) was a hit, soon covered by many artists (Tony Bennett, the Four Tops, Waylon Jennings, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli…), until Donna Summerwho recorded the best-known version: a cover disco produced by Giorgio Moroder, number 1 in the charts in 1978, and which we also hear at the end of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – a way to bring the film’s disco full circle, with one of its first notable scenes set to the Bee Gees’ “Tragedy.” In the chorus of “MacArthur Park,” Richard Harris laments about a cake that someone left out in the rain, and which he doesn’t ““doesn’t know the recipe anymore”. Tim Burton, for his part, clearly still knows the formula for a spotting euphoric musical.