Greatest Hits of Rod McKuen Expanded Edition

CD Details

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! 1. Kaleidoscope 2. The World I Used to Know 3. Blessings in Shades of Green 4. Stanyan Street 5. The Ivy That Clings to the Wall 6. The Lovers 7. Ally, Ally Oxen Free 8. The Marvelous Clouds 9. I’ll Catch the Sun 10. Lonesome Cities 11. One by One 12. If You Go Away 13. Doesn’t Anybody Know My Name (2.10-6.18) 14. Seasons in the Sun 15. Jean 16. Listen to the Warm 17. Love’s Been Good to Me 18. I Think of You 19. Rock Gently 20. The Importance of the Rose (Duet with Petula Clark)