Rod McKuen

Rodney Marvin McKuen, born Rodney Marvin Woolever on April 29, 1933, in Oakland, California, was an American poet, singer-songwriter, and composer. He began his music career as a folk singer at San Francisco's famed Purple Onion nightclub, incorporating his own songs into performances. In the late 1950s, he signed with Decca Records and released several pop albums. He moved to France in the early 1960s, where he met Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel. His translations of Jacquw Brel's work, including "If You Go Away" and "Seasons in the Sun", became international hits. In 1974, Terry Jacks' cover of "Seasons in the Sun" reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the late 1960s, he began publishing poetry collections like Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows (1966) and Listen to the Warm (1967), which earned him a substantial following. His album of readings, Lonesome Cities, won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording in 1968. He released over 200 albums and wrote more than 1,500 songs, selling over 100 million records worldwide. He also earned two Academy Award nominations for his music compositions. Rodney Marvin McKuen passed away on January 29, 2015.

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