5. Richard Harris, "MacArthur Park" (1968)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwYQgk05DY
"MacArthur 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 noooooo"
You may know Richard Harris, who passed away in 2002, as Albus Dumbledore from the first two Harry Potter films. Harris had an illustrious acting career, but is also famed for releasing this complex, haunting song (written by Jimmy Webb). Oh, and it's eight minutes long (perhaps you'll recall that morsel from a famous Simpsons episode when, to Krusty's lament, Apu's niece plays it on the tablah). The song is primarily a narrative about a walk through Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, with several cultural references tossed in for good measure. But the song takes a strange turn when it compares the park to a cake. A cake that is melting. At night. In the rain. To Richard Harris's dismay, that cake will never be baked again. Perhaps this can be viewed as a profound reflection on love and loss...but it's more fun to visualise Dumbledore baking a cake and subsequently crying over it.