Will Jennings, the Oscar-winning lyricist of “My Heart Will Go On” and “Up Where We Belong,” has died. He was 80 years outdated.
The singer-songwriter died Friday at his residence in Tyler, Texas, his agent Sam Schwartz of the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency confirmed to the Times. “May his reminiscence be a blessing,” she mentioned of Jennings by way of e mail. No explanation for dying was revealed.
Jennings, born in Texas in 1944, wrote songs that have been recorded by Dionne Warwick, Jimmy Buffett, Rodney Crowell, Peter Wolf, Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Diana Ross, amongst others. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.
His most well-known pop classics embrace Whitney Houston’s “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It,” Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” and Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” this the latter of which earned him the Grammy Award for Song of the Year, his first of three Grammys.
“A tragic time, the passing of Will Jennings, a grasp, a superb thoughts and a mild spirit,” wrote Wolf, who collaborated with Jennings on two albums on social media. “It was an enormous honor to have labored with such a musical genius.”
Will Jennings, left, and James Horner backstage on the Academy Awards after profitable the Oscar for “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic” in 1998.
(Bob Riha Jr./Getty Images)
Jennings received the Oscar for “Up Where We Belong,” written with Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie and starring Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes for the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and “My Heart Will Go On” , written with James Horner and starring Celine Dion for the movie “Titanic”.
“(He) condensed that movie’s epic melodrama into 5 endlessly replayable minutes of overwhelming faux-Celtic majesty,” the Times’ pop music critic wrote of Mikael Wood “My Heart Will Go On” in 2015. “The tune additionally solidified Celine Dion’s place as one in every of music’s most dependable (and shameless) emotes.”
Jennings additionally contributed to “Where Are You Christmas?” from the film “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” in addition to “Someday I’ll Fly Away”, which appeared within the movie “Moulin Rouge!” (together with Jennings’ “Up Where We Belong”).
“I’m deeply saddened to study of the passing of my pal and collaborator Will Jennings,” musician Christopher Croce he wrote on X. “Working with Will was a grasp class in lyric writing for me. He was an knowledgeable lyricist and his present to the world is everlasting.”
“The love in your sensible songs will go on without end,” singer-songwriter Diane Warren he said on X. “Write to Power, Will Jennings.”
