''Birthday'' is

The Association The Association is an American sunshine pop band from California. During the late 1960s, the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the ''Billboard'' charts (including " Windy", " Cherish", " Never My Love" and "Along Comes Mary") and ...

's fourth

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

. The album featured two hit singles, " Everything That Touches You", which hit number 10 in the charts, The Association USA chart history Billboard.com. Retrieved June 2, 2012. and "Time for Livin, which reached number 39. This was the last LP by the group that spawned

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

hits. It peaked at number 23 in the Billboard charts.

MacArthur Park

The song "

MacArthur Park MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and later designated City of Los Angeles H ...

", which was first recorded by

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...

, was originally offered to the Association for inclusion on this album. Producer Bones Howes challenged Jimmy Webb to write a pop song that incorporated classical instrumentation and an odd time signature, which he planned to have the Association record. According to rumors, the song was intended as a centerpiece for a twenty-four-minute cantata that would occupy one side of the record, but the group rejected the idea and were only interested (albeit reluctantly) in recording the “MacArthur Park” section. This rumor was later debunked by Webb himself, claiming there was only one composition. The reason for its exclusion was that the group, being able songwriters themselves, were not willing to give up two to three of their songs for the sake of Webb's project. When Harris, who had just performed a slew of musical numbers for the film adaptation of ''

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...

'', contacted Webb for a possible collaboration, this was among the compositions that were in consideration. The Harris recording became lead single for his pop record debut, ''

A Tramp Shining ''A Tramp Shining'' is the debut album of Richard Harris, released in 1968 by Dunhill Records. The album was written, arranged, and produced by singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. Although Harris sang several numbers on the soundtrack album to the fil ...

'', and made its way onto the Billboard Hot 100 at number 79 on May 11, 1968, peaking at number 2 on June 22, 1968 behind

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

's "

This Guy's in Love with You "This Guy's in Love with You" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and recorded by Herb Alpert. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, ar ...

Track listing

Singles

#"Everything That Touches You" b/w "We Love Us" (Warner Bros. 7163) January 8, 1968 (US #10) #"Time for Livin b/w "Birthday Morning" (Warner Bros. 7195) April 24, 1968 (US #39)

Personnel

The Association

Terry Kirkman Terry Robert Kirkman (born December 12, 1939) is an American musician, who was the lead vocalist for the folk rock group the Association and writer of their hit songs " Cherish", " Everything That Touches You", and "Six Man Band" among many oth ...

– wind instruments, vocals, percussion * Larry Ramos – lead guitar, vocals * Russ Giguere – rhythm guitar, vocals, percussion * Brian Cole – bass, vocals, woodwinds * Ted Bluechel, Jr. – drums, vocals, rhythm guitar, bass * Jim Yester – rhythm guitar, vocals, keyboards

Additional musicians

According to the 2010 deluxe mono edition: *

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

– drums * Joe Osborn,

Ray Pohlman Merlyn Ray Pohlman (July 22, 1930 – November 1, 1990) was an American session musician and arranger who played both upright bass and bass guitar, and also did sessions as a guitarist. He is credited with being the first electric bass player ...

– bass * Jim Yester, Tommy Tedesco, Russ Giguere,

David Bennett Cohen David Bennett Cohen (born August 4, 1942) is an American musician best known as the original keyboardist and one of the guitar players for the late-1960s psychedelic rock and blues band Country Joe and the Fish. Early life and influences ...

Mike Deasy Michael William Deasy (born February 4, 1941) is an American rock and jazz guitarist. As a session musician, he played on numerous hit singles and albums recorded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He is sometimes credited as Mike De ...

Dennis Budimir Dennis Matthew Budimir (June 20, 1938 – January 2023) was an American jazz and rock guitarist. He was considered to be a member of The Wrecking Crew. Biography Budimir learned to play piano and guitar in his youth and first played professio ...

, Al Casey – guitars *

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles-based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon & ...

– piano, keyboards * Milton Holland, Dale Anderson,

Gene Estes The Wrecking Crew was a loose collective of Los Angeles-based session musicians whose services were employed for a great number of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including hundreds of top 40 hits. The musicians were not publicly rec ...

Larry Bunker Lawrence Benjamin Bunker (November 4, 1928 – March 8, 2005) was an American jazz drummer, vibraphonist, and percussionist. A member of the Bill Evans Trio in the mid-1960s, he also played timpani with the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. ...

– vibes, various percussion *

Red Callender George Sylvester "Red" Callender (March 6, 1916 – March 8, 1992) was an American string bass and tuba player. He is perhaps best known as a jazz musician, but worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Cr ...

– double bass, tuba * James Decker, Arthur Maebe, William Hinshaw, David Duke – French horn * Emanuel Klein, Jimmy Zito, Buddy Childers,

Tony Terran Anthony Terran (May 30, 1926 – March 20, 2017) was an American trumpet player and session musician. He was part of the Wrecking Crew, a group of largely uncredited session musicians in Los Angeles, California, who helped famous artists record ...

, Bobby Bryant – trumpet * Lew McCreary, David Wells – trombone * James Decker, William Hinshaw – French horn * John Johnson – saxophone * Paulo Alencar, Arnold Belnick, Henry Ferber, Jacques Gasselin, Jerome Reisler, Ralph Schaeffer, Sidney Sharp, William Weiss, Shari Zippert – strings

Technical

Bones Howe Dayton Burr "Bones" Howe (born March 18, 1933) is an American record producer and recording engineer who scored a string of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, often of the sunshine pop genre, starting in 1965 with The Turtles cover of Bob Dylan's "It ...

– producer, engineer *

Ed Thrasher Edward Lee Thrasher Jr. (March 7, 1932 – August 5, 2006), known as Ed Thrasher, was an American art director and photographer. He was the recipient of numerous Grammy Award nominations for his work on album covers and won a Grammy for Best Album ...

– art direction * Wayne Kimbell – design * George Rodriguez – photography

References

1968 albums The Association albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Bones Howe {{1960s-rock-album-stub