Rod McKuen

Greatest Hits Rod McKuen Expanded edition

Rod's 1969 Greatest Hits release didn't exactly just feature his greatest hits. Instead of the usual music biz cash-in strategy of lifting songs from preceding albums to create a best-of, Rod--ever the artistic striver--chose his most popular songs to re-record with new arrangements with Arthur Greenslade. His unconventional move paid off with a gold record, which we at Real Gone have supplemented with six bonus tracks from earlier and later sessions to create a fully fleshed-out portrait of the singer-songwriter-performer. McKuen fans can recite many of the lyrics to these songs; the spoken word piece "Stanyan Street;" "The Ivy That Clings to the Wall," first heard in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; "The Lovers," which Jacques Brel translated and recorded; "Lonesome Cities," later covered by Frank Sinatra on his all-McKuen album; "Seasons in the Sun," which Terry Jacks took to #1; "If You Go Away," which was performed by everybody from Dusty Springfield to Tom Jones to Brenda Lee; and, among the bonus tracks, "Jean," which Oliver Swofford took to #2 on the charts in 1969. McKuen biographer Barry Alfonso contributes insightful liner notes, with copious photos and a new remastering by Mike Milchner at SonicVision. The place to dive into the McKuen discography!