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.
In 1959, McKuen released a novelty single with Bob McFadden under the pseudonym Dor on the Brunswick label called "The Mummy". In 1961, he had a hit single titled "Oliver Twist". McKuen has collaborated with numerous composers, including Henry Mancini, John Williams, and Anita Kerr. His symphonies, concertos, and other orchestral works have been performed by orchestras around the globe. His work as a composer in the film industry has garnered him two Academy Award nominations for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
In 1967, McKuen began collaborating with arranger Anita Kerr and the San Sebastian Strings for a series of vocal pop albums, including The Sea (1967), The Earth (1967), The Sky (1968), Home to the Sea (1969), For Lovers (1969), and The Soft Sea (1970). In 1969, Frank Sinatra commissioned an entire album of poems and songs by McKuen; it was released under the title A Man Alone: The Words and Music of Rod McKuen. The album featured the song "Love's Been Good to Me," which become one of McKuen's best-known songs.
In 1971, his song "I Think of You" was a major hit for Perry Como. Other popular McKuen compositions included "The World I Used to Know", "Rock Gently", "Doesn't Anybody Know My Name", "The Importance of the Rose", "Without a Worry in the World", and "Soldiers Who Want to Be Heroes".
During the 1970s, McKuen began composing larger-scale orchestral compositions, writing a series of concertos, suites, symphonies, and chamber pieces for orchestra. His piece The City: A Suite for Narrator & Orchestra, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music. He continued publishing a steady stream of poetry books throughout the decade. In 1977, he published Finding My Father, a chronicle of his search for information on his biological father. The book and its publicity helped make such information more readily available to adopted children. He also continued to record, releasing albums such as New Ballads (1970), Pastorale (1971), the country-rock outing McKuen Country (1976).
McKuen continued to enjoy sell-out concerts around the world and appeared regularly at New York's Carnegie Hall.
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