Poet, songwriter and ‘King of Kitsch’ Rod McKuen dies aged 81

McKuen, 81, died at a rehabilitation clinic in Beverly Hills, California, where he had been treated for pneumonia.

He had been ill for several weeks and was unable to digest food, his half-brother, Edward McKuen Habib, said.

Until his sabbatical in 1981, McKuen was an astonishingly successful and prolific force in popular culture, 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 world that captivated those who did not ordinarily like “poetry” and those who craved relief from the war, assassinations and riots of the time.

“I think it’s a reaction people are having against so much insanity in the world,” he said.

“I mean, people are really all we’ve got.

“You know it sounds kind of corny, and I suppose it’s a cliché, but it’s really true; that’s just the way it is.”

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.

Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Dolly Parton and Chet Baker were among the many artists who recorded his material, although McKuen often handled the job himself, in a hushed, throaty style he had honed after an early life as a rock singer cracked his natural tenor.

His work continued to be used through the years in major film productions and television series including Cheers.