Thursday, May 30, 2013
'Jean' - Rod McKuen
Remember that guy? He was to poetry what rap is to music - commercially successful, but 'purists' scoffed at him.
"Rod McKuen is an American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. Throughout his career, McKuen produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks, and classical music. He earned two Oscar nominations and one Pulitzer nomination for his serious music compositions. McKuen's translations and adaptations of the songs of Jacques Brel were instrumental in bringing the Belgian songwriter to prominence in the English-speaking world. His poetry dealt with themes of love, the natural world, and spirituality, and his thirty books of poetry sold millions of copies.[1]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_McKuen
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5 comments:
Orb's, GEEZ, that's nice. I will have to look on iTunes for him. I love his new voice. Almost sounds like Clint Eastwood singing the song from Gran Torino.
Orb's, Jacques Brel, Is also a favorite composer of music Johnny Mathis has sung. Many people don't care for Johnny, but his music choices, and talent surpass most everybody to sing a note. Particularly today.
I had no idea he wrote something like 1500 songs. Many for big name singers....
Songwriting
Rod McKuen has written over 1500 songs, which have accounted for the sale of over 100 million records for such diverse artists as Glenn Yarbrough, Madonna, Perry Como, Petula Clark, Waylon Jennings, The Boston Pops, Chet Baker, Johnny Cash, Pete Fountain, Andy Williams, the Kingston Trio, Percy Faith, the London Philharmonic, Dusty Springfield, Johnny Mathis, Al Hirt, Greta Keller, Frank Sinatra, and Gene Ween.
I was surprised that he's still alive.
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