"Jurassic Park" is a parody of Richard Harris's version of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's Alapalooza album in October 1993. "Jurassic Park" was penned by Yankovic after he remembered the enjoyment he had when he combined a classic rock track with a recent movie theme with his 1985 song "Yoda". Yankovic decided to combine the plot of the recent movie Jurassic Park—a film about a park on a fictional island where geneticists have succeeded in cloning dinosaurs—with the classic Richard Harris track "MacArthur Park". The song was paired with an elaborately animated music video, which was created by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund almost entirely via claymation. The video did not receive extensive play on MTV, although it was popular on The Box, VH1, and in Canada, where it was played on MuchMusic. The video, due to its animation, also later went on to be praised at various animation festivals worldwide. "Jurassic Park" was met with mixed to positive reviews; while many reviewers enjoyed Yankovic's humor, others felt that the song did not satirize the source material, but instead merely recounted the plot to the movie. Webb himself was very pleased with the final result and has been known to sing the parody lyrics in concert. Although the single did not chart in the United States, it peaked at number 5 on the Canadian magazine The Record's single chart. The video was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 37th Grammy Awards, although it did not win.
Writing Yankovic was inspired to write the song after he heard The Kinks' song "Lola" while driving in his car one day, noting, "I was driving a rent-a-car through Florida when the song 'Lola' came on the radio, and it got me thinking about how much fun I had doing 'Yoda' [a song from 1985's Dare to Be Stupid] where I took a then-current topic and combined it with a classic rock tune." He soon turned his attention to the then-recently-released film Jurassic Park, based on the eponymous 1990 novel by Michael Crichton, which involved a group of scientists visiting the titular park located on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, where geneticists have successfully created genetically-engineered dinosaurs. Deciding to write a parody about the movie, he considered various songs to spoof, eventually deciding on the 1968 hit single "MacArthur Park", which was performed by Richard Harris. Yankovic approached the original song's writer, Jimmy Webb, who agreed to the idea and was so amused by the parody that he later penned a letter to Yankovic that read, "Well, [this parody] oughta [sic] bury that song once and for all!" Additionally, Crichton and director Steven Spielberg permitted Yankovic to produce the track.
Recording and lyrics
Yankovic entered the studio to record "Jurassic Park" on July 16, 1993. Backing Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar. "MacArthur Park" contained an actual orchestra complete with a strings section. "Jurassic Park", however, features synth strings courtesy of keyboardist Brad Buxer, who programmed the section himself. Intermixed during the interlude are various dinosaur sound effects courtesy of Sandy Berman; Berman had previously created similar sounds for a theme park attraction, and loaned Yankovic the sound effects. At 3:53 in length, the song is considerably shorter than the original, which clocks in at 7:21. Largely, this is due to the fact that the middle section featured in the original—the so called "After the Loves of My Life" section—is omitted from Yankovic's parody. The song itself recounts both the plot of the movie, and contains various in-jokes and references therein. One line about lawyers—"A huge tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer / Well, I suppose that proves they're really not all bad"—was deliberately placed in the song to be ambiguous, as it could either be referring to lawyers or dinosaurs as being "not all bad". The song also makes various pop culture references, mentioning both E tickets and Barney.
Music video
When it came time for a video for "Jurassic Park", Yankovic opted to use stop-motion and claymation; he joked during a Q&A that this was because "it's just too hard to find real live dinosaurs these days." "Jurassic Park" was Yankovic's first video that was entirely animated—previous videos, such as "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" and "Dare to Be Stupid" had featured elements of animation. The video was directed by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund. Yankovic initially heard of the duo from Bill Manspeaker, the lead singer of the comedy rock band Green Jellÿ. After being hired for the project, the two "basically turned a private residence in Los Angeles into a clay animation studio." The two worked between July and August 1993, and slept in shifts, so that the final project would be ready for its release in October 1993. Yankovic remained hands-off in its creation, allowing the two full creative freedom for the video. One critic noted that the music video seems to have been done in the style of Will Vinton's Dinosaur! A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time! The video parodies scenes from, as well as the general plot of, the 1993 movie, and contains a myriad of sight-gags—as is usual for Yankovic's videos—such as a claymation version of Steven Spielberg running from dinosaurs, Barney having his head bitten off, and a Velociraptor attempting to break down a door, only to realize it has a key.
Release
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