New-age poet Rod McKuen was 'King of Kitsch'
Rod McKuen, the husky-voiced "King of Kitsch" whose music, verse and spoken-word recordings in the 1960s and '70s won him an Oscar nomination and made him one of the best-selling poets in history, has died aged 81.
1933-2015
Rod McKuen, the husky-voiced "King of Kitsch" whose music, verse and spoken-word recordings in the 1960s and '70s won him an Oscar nomination and made him one of the best-selling poets in history, has died aged 81.
McKuen died on Thursday morning at a rehabilitation centre in Beverly Hills, California. He had been treated for pneumonia, had been ill for weeks and was unable to digest, said his half-brother, Edward McKuen Habib.
Until a sabbatical in 1981, McKuen was astonishingly successful and prolific , turning out hundreds of songs and poems and records, including the Academy Award-nominated song Jean for the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Sentimental, earnest and unashamed, he conjured a New Age spirit that captivated those who didn't ordinarily like "poetry".
His best known songs, some written with the Belgian composer Jacques Brel, include Birthday Boy, A Man Alone, If You Go Away and Seasons In the Sun, a chart-topper in 1974 for Terry Jacks. He was nominated for an Oscar for Jean and for A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the title track for the beloved Peanuts movie.