Rod McKuen dies

Songwriter/poet Rod McKuen, 81, died.

Among McKuen’s commercial successes in the 1960s and '70s were his reworking of Jacques Brel’s song "Le Moribond" for the English-language version of “Seasons in the Sun” and a 1969 Frank Sinatra album of McKuen songs, “A Man Alone.”

McKuen was born in Oakland in 1933 and abused by his stepfather.