“It’s a work of art, but what’s amazing is that it even happened. Richard Harris got me on a plane to England, but instead of doing any recording, I wound up having a 10-day party with Richard and his actor friends, all of them big names, wonderful people and world-class drinkers. We finally had to fly back to LA to get with The Wrecking Crew and record the song.

“Jimmy Webb wrote the number and produced it. We went into Sound Recorders - myself, Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel – and got crackin’ on it. What was especially thrilling for me was that I got to conduct the strings when we did the overdubs.

“Everybody used to laugh about this song... the cake staying out in the rain. But this was Jimmy Webb’s poetic genius. I thought it was a masterpiece when we were doing it. I really did. And here’s the really mind-blowing part: the basic track was cut in one take!”

Listen: Richard Harris - MacArthur Park (1968)