40 Facts About Rod McKuen

Rodney Marvin McKuen was an American poet, singer-songwriter, and composer.

Rod McKuen was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s.

Rod McKuen earned two Academy Award nominations for his music compositions.

Rod McKuen's songs sold over 100 million recordings worldwide, and 60 million books of his poetry were sold as well.

Rod McKuen never knew his biological father, who had left his mother.

Sexually and physically abused by relatives, raised by his mother and stepfather, who was a violent alcoholic, Rod McKuen ran away from home.

Rod McKuen drifted along the West Coast, supporting himself as a ranch hand, surveyor, railroad worker, lumberjack, rodeo cowboy, stuntman, and radio disc jockey, always sending money home to his mother.

Rod McKuen settled in San Francisco, where he read his poetry in clubs alongside Beat poets like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

Rod McKuen began performing as a folk singer at the famed Purple Onion.

Rod McKuen was signed to Decca Records and released several pop albums in the late 1950s.

Rod McKuen appeared as an actor in Rock, Pretty Baby, Summer Love, and the western Wild Heritage.

In 1959, Rod McKuen moved to New York City to compose and conduct music for the TV show The CBS Workshop.

Rod McKuen translated Brel's song "Le Moribond" loosely into "Seasons in the Sun", and British folkbeat group The Fortunes charted with the song in the Netherlands in 1969.

Rod McKuen's poems were translated into eleven languages and his books sold over 1 million copies in 1968 alone.

Rod McKuen said that his most romantic poetry was influenced by American poet Walter Benton's two books of poems.

Rod McKuen sold over 60 million books worldwide, according to the Associated Press.

Rod McKuen wrote over 1,500 songs and released up to 200 albums which have accounted for the sale of over 100 million records worldwide according to the Associated Press.

Rod McKuen's songs have been performed by such diverse artists as Robert Goulet, Glenn Yarbrough, Barbra Streisand, Perry Como, Petula Clark, Waylon Jennings, The Boston Pops, Chet Baker, Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Pete Fountain, Andy Williams, the Kingston Trio, Percy Faith, the London Philharmonic, Nana Mouskouri, Daliah Lavi, Dusty Springfield, Johnny Mathis, Al Hirt, Greta Keller, Aaron Freeman, and Frank Sinatra.

In 1959, Rod McKuen released his first novelty single with Bob McFadden, under the pseudonym Dor on the Brunswick label, called "The Mummy".

The Rod McKuen-written song reached No 39 on the Billboard pop chart.

Rod McKuen co-wrote it along with Gladys Shelley and the Spiral label-issued single reached No 76 on the Billboard pop chart.

Rod McKuen's hoarse and throaty singing voice on these and other recordings was a result of McKuen straining his vocal cords in 1961 due to too many promotional appearances.

Rod McKuen collaborated with numerous composers, including Henry Mancini, John Williams, and Anita Kerr.

In 1967, Rod McKuen began collaborating with arranger Anita Kerr and the San Sebastian Strings for a series of albums featuring Rod McKuen's poetry recited over Kerr's mood music, including The Sea, The Earth, The Sky, Home to the Sea, For Lovers, and The Soft Sea.

Rod McKuen performed solo in a half-hour special broadcast by NBC on May 10,1969.

In 1971, he hosted a series, The Rod McKuen Show, on BBC television in the UK.

Rod McKuen's Academy Award-nominated composition "Jean", sung by Oliver, reached No 1 in 1969 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and stayed there for four weeks.

In 1971, Rod McKuen became popular in the Netherlands, where the singles "Soldiers Who Want to Be Heroes" and "Without a Worry in the World" reached number one in the charts, as did the album Greatest Hits, Vol.

Rod McKuen continued publishing a steady stream of poetry books throughout the decade.

Rod McKuen continued to record, releasing albums such as New Ballads, Pastorale, and the country-rock outing McKuen Country.

Rod McKuen continued to perform concerts around the world and appeared regularly at New York's Carnegie Hall throughout the 1970s, making sporadic appearances as recently as the early 2000s.

In 1973, at forty, Rod McKuen radically changed his outward appearance: he no longer bleached his hair and he grew a beard.

Rod McKuen continued to write poetry and made appearances as a voice-over actor in The Little Mermaid and on its spin-off TV series, as well as on the TV series The Critic.

Rod McKuen released the double CD The Platinum Collection and was remastering all of his RCA and Warner Bros.

Rod McKuen lived in Beverly Hills, California with his partner Edward, whom he called his "brother", and four cats in a large rambling Spanish house built in 1928, which housed one of the world's largest private record collections.

Rod McKuen died of respiratory arrest, a result of pneumonia, at a hospital in Beverly Hills, California, on January 29,2015.

That same year, Rod McKuen spoke out against singer Anita Bryant and her "Save Our Children" campaign to repeal an anti-discrimination ordinance in Miami, tagging Bryant with the nickname "Ginny Orangeseed", and including a song on Slide.

Rod McKuen often gave benefit performances to aid LGBT rights organizations and to fund AIDS research.

Rod McKuen himself quipped that "The most unforgivable sin in the world is to be a bestselling poet".

Rod McKuen used the vernacular of his time to reach the widest audience.