The Three Degrees - MacArthur Park

Ever since first hearing The Three Degrees I have been convinced that they are the best female threesome singing group in the world.There is no other group which has their perfect harmony. I have also never seen any other group with their level of sophisticated choreographic unison.There have been several lineups over the nearly six decades of their existence but the one in this clip was I think the most successful. In order of appearance in this clip are Fayette Pinkney, Sheila Ferguson and Valerie Holiday. The latter lady holds the record for the longest stay with a single group. They are not the highest selling group in their home country, USA, But I believe that is only because of relatively poor marketing. They are very popular in Japan and both the clips chosen are done live in Japan. The second is done entirely in Japanese which is pronounced perfectly according to a Japanese speaking commenter. The title is Nigai Namida which means Bitter Tears. In a previous post I had them doing Tenshi No Seseyaki which means When Will I See You Again. They won the 1975 world song competition held in Japan with this. The song in this post was written by Jimmy Webb after a painful romantic breakup. It was composed at the piano of good friend Buddy Greco with whom he was staying while recovering.Some people call it the silliest song in the world but everything in it was real! MacArthur Park was the place Jimmy and his girlfriend always met. Someone really did leave a green iced cake out in the rain and there were really some old men playing checkers by the trees. Buddy Greco was so impressed with the song that from then on whenever he gave a public performance he always closed off with it.