Rod McKuen: Seasons in the Sun

Farewell then to Rod McKuen, best selling American poet and musician, who translated the work of Jacques Brel  into English and introduced his work to an Anglophone audience.

His interpretations of the songs in English became better known through performances by other singers.

His translations of songs like If You Go Away and Le Moribund (retitled Seasons in the Sun) became hits and went on to become standards. Dusty Springfield would have a hit with If You Go Away, Terry Jacks would have an international hit with Seasons in the Sun in 1974.

McKuen lived in France in the early 60s and got to know Brel, translating his songs as well as those of others.

McKuen's work was hugely popular in the late 60s and the early 70s,  and he had a long career as a writer and musician, but his work with Brel probably led to much of the abiding interest in the work of one of the French language's greatest songwriters.

Rétro: Dusty Springfield - If You Go Away

A retro look at a version of Brel's classic If You Go Away by Dusty Springfield that made an unexpected appearance on prome time UK TV in an edition of the coutry's most-watched soap opera Coronation Street.

Springfield's version is based on the English-language translation by Rod McKuen but also includes some of the original lyrics from Brel's 1959 Ne Me Quitte Pas.

She was not the first to cover the song, with versions already being recorded by Barbara, Marlene Dietrich, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey and Brenda Lee, so it was well on its way to being a standard, but her cover would have certainly have introduced it to a British pop audience.

Dusty Springfield's version was included in her 1967 The Look of Love album, her third, which was released under the title Where Am I Going in the UK.

At the time she was one of the most popular female singers in the UK, and the album did much to establish her credentials as a serious artist.

She would become one of the biggest-selling female artists in the UK of the 1960s.

It would again be associated with her as it would decades later feature in a musical about her life that was staged in 2000.