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Will Jennings

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Will Jennings
Birth nameWilbur Herschel Jennings
Born(1944-06-27)June 27, 1944
Kilgore, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 6, 2024(2024-09-06) (aged 80)
Tyler, Texas, U.S.
OccupationsLyricist

Wilbur Herschel Jennings (June 27, 1944 – September 6, 2024) was an American lyricist.[1][2] He was known for writing the songs "Up Where We Belong", "Higher Love", "Tears in Heaven" and "My Heart Will Go On".[3] He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and won several awards including three Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards.[4]

Background

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Wilbur Herschel Jennings was born in Kilgore, Texas, on June 27, 1944,[5] the youngest of three siblings. He had two sisters, Joyce and Gloria.[6][7] He attended school near Tyler, Texas, in the Chapel Hill Independent School District. He graduated from Tyler Junior College[8] and taught English at the college. In 1966, Jennings earned his B.A. from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas; he earned a master's degree the following year and taught English there.[5][9] He taught at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire for three years,[10] then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1971[11] to begin his songwriting career.[5]

Career

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Jennings was described as "the most erudite of lyricists".[11] He wrote for a variety of artists, including Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Joe Sample, Rodney Crowell, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Buffett, Barry Manilow, and Roy Orbison.[12][13][14] In Nashville he worked with other composers, and his first big hit came when Manilow took his joint composition with Richard Kerr, "Looks Like We Made It", to no.1 in 1977.[11]

With Steve Winwood, Jennings wrote a series of albums including Arc of a Diver, Talking Back to the Night, and Back in the High Life, an album that contained the hits "Higher Love", "The Finer Things", and "Back in the High Life Again". Winwood won the Record Of The Year and Outstanding Male Vocal Performance. Both Jennings and Winwood were nominated for the Song of the Year award for "Higher Love."[15]

With Joe Sample, Jennings wrote "Street Life" (a world-wide hit for the Crusaders with singer Randy Crawford) and several songs for various albums by the Crusaders for guest vocalists, including Joe Cocker ("I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today"), and Bill Withers ("Soul Shadows"). Jennings and Sample also wrote the better part of three albums for B.B. King, Midnight Believer in 1978, Take It Home in 1979, and There Is Always One More Time in 1991.[16][17]

Richard Kerr and Jennings wrote "Somewhere in the Night" and "Looks Like We Made It" for Barry Manilow and "I'll Never Love This Way Again" for Dionne Warwick.[18][19][20] Deana Martin recorded one of Jennings's songs, "I Know Who You Are", on her 2016 album Swing Street.[21]

Jennings collaborated on many songs for film, the most notable being "Up Where We Belong" for An Officer and a Gentleman, a song that won the Academy Award in America and the BAFTA (British Academy Award) in the United Kingdom and was a number one hit for Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. In 1997, Jennings wrote the world-wide number one Céline Dion hit "My Heart Will Go On" for the film Titanic with his collaborator James Horner.[22] The song became one of the most successful songs of all time and won the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Song. They also won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture at the 41st Grammy Awards.[23] Titanic's director, James Cameron, had at first been opposed to having a theme song playing over the closing credits, but Horner, having composed the instrumental motif, felt that it needed words and secretly had Jennings write a lyric. Cameron liked it and included it in the film.[24]

Among his other collaborations were two albums written with Jimmy Buffett and Michael Utley, Riddles in the Sand and The Last Mango in Paris. Jennings also wrote several songs for Roy Orbison's King of Hearts album.[25][26]

In Nashville, Jennings wrote hits with Rodney Crowell, including "Many a Long & Lonesome Highway", "What Kind of Love", and "Please Remember Me", a number one country hit for Tim McGraw.[26] Jennings also wrote "Tears in Heaven" with Eric Clapton, which won song of the Year and also won the Ivor Novello award for best song from a film.[27]

Teaming with James Horner and Mariah Carey, Jennings wrote the lyrics for the central song in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, "Where Are You Christmas?", sung by a character within the film and by Faith Hill at the end of the film. In 2002, Horner and Jennings contributed a song for the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind.[23] In 2002, Peter Wolf's new album, Sleepless, appeared with positive reviews. The album featured six songs written by Jennings and Wolf, who collaborated previously on Fool's Parade (1999) on Mercury Records.[28]

Jennings and Joe Sample, the keyboard player for the Crusaders, went back to 1978 and began by writing the Midnight Believer album for B.B. King and then wrote the hit "Street Life" for the Crusaders album of the same name. Jennings and Sample also wrote "One Day I'll Fly Away", originally sung by Crawford, which was featured in the film Moulin Rouge!, along with another of Jennings's songs, "Up Where We Belong". In the film "One Day I'll Fly Away" was sung by Nicole Kidman and, in March 2002, was released as a single in the UK from the second soundtrack album to emerge from Moulin Rouge.[29]

Personal life and death

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Jennings married Carole Elizabeth Thurman on August 14, 1965, in Tyler, Texas.[30][7] Following several years of declining health, Jennings died at his home in Tyler on September 6, 2024, at the age of 80.[31][32][33]

Albums

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Hits

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Awards and honours

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He has received the following major awards:

Jennings was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame seven years later.

References

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  1. ^ "Oscar-winning 'My Heart Will Go On' lyricist Will Jennings dies aged 80". Yahoo! News. Euro News. September 9, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  2. ^ Peters, Mitchell (September 7, 2024). "Will Jennings, Oscar-Winning 'My Heart Will Go On' Co-Writer, Dies at 80". Billboard. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  3. ^ Willman, Chris (September 7, 2024). "Will Jennings, Co-writer of 'My Heart Will Go On,' 'Tears in Heaven' and Other Classics, Dies at 80". Variety. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  4. ^ "Will Jennings". IMDb.com. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Risen, Clay (September 10, 2024). "Will Jennings, Oscar Winner for 'My Heart Will Go On,' Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  6. ^ Sanders, Rebecca (May 29, 2024). "Will Jennings: A Songwriter and a Gentleman". Tyler Today. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Piña, Christy (September 7, 2024). "Will Jennings, Oscar Winner for "My Heart Will Go On" and "Up Where We Belong," Dies at 80". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  8. ^ "Will Jennings, Oscar-winning co-writer of "My Heart Will Go On" and "Tears in Heaven," dies at 80 - CBS News". cbsnews.com. September 8, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  9. ^ "The Collegiate Licensing Company : Institution Profile". Clc.com. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  10. ^ Tweet (May 7, 2006). "Will Jennings: Songwriter Interviews". Songfacts.com. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  11. ^ a b c "The Times Register: Obituary Will Jennings". September 13, 2024. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  12. ^ "Will Jennings Biography". Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  13. ^ Ankeny, Jason (June 27, 1944). "Will Jennings - Music Biography, Credits and Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  14. ^ "While You See a Chance by Steve Winwood Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  15. ^ "Back In The High Life Again by Steve Winwood Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  16. ^ McGee, David (2005). B.B. King: There Is Always One More Time - David McGee - Google Books. ISBN 9780879308438. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  17. ^ Billboard - Google Books. March 3, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  18. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: Updated and Expanded 5th Edition. Watson Guptill Publications. p. 677. ISBN 9780823076772. Retrieved July 12, 2024 – via the Internet Archive. Lyricist Will Jennings...moved to Los Angeles. His publisher...Almo-Irving Music, wintroduced Jennings to British composer Richard Kerr...Whitney's (Houston) cousin, Dionne Warwick...had her first hit on the label with Jennings and Kerr's "I'll Never Love This Way Again" (number five in October, 1979). [sic]
  19. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: Updated and Expanded 5Th Edition - Fred Bronson - Google Books. ISBN 9780823076772. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  20. ^ Kreps, Daniel (September 7, 2024). "Will Jennings, Oscar-Winning 'My Heart Will Go On' Lyricist, Dead at 80". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  21. ^ "Review - Deana Martin - Swing Street". Music Connection \ November 30, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  22. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (September 9, 2024). "Will Jennings, Oscar-winning lyricist of My Heart Will Go On, dies aged 80". The Guardian. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  23. ^ a b "Will Jennings". IMDb. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  24. ^ "The Times Register: Obituary Will Jennings". September 13, 2024. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  25. ^ Eng, Steve (October 15, 1997). Jimmy Buffett: The Man from Margaritaville Revealed. ISBN 9780312168759. Retrieved August 14, 2012 – via Google Books.
  26. ^ a b Lehman, Peter (June 13, 2003). Roy Orbison: Invention of an Alternative Rock Masculinity. ISBN 9781439903896. Retrieved August 14, 2012 – via Google Books.
  27. ^ Strong, Martin Charles (2004). The Great Rock Discography: Complete Discographies Listing Every Track ... ISBN 9781841956152. Retrieved August 14, 2012 – via Google Books.
  28. ^ Swindle, Anna (January 8, 2010). "Peter Wolf's New Album to Feature Neko Case and Merle Haggard". Pastemagazine.com. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  29. ^ Muir, John Kenneth (2005). Singing A New Tune: The Rebirth Of The Modern Film Musical, from Evita to De ... - John Kenneth Muir - Google Books. ISBN 9781557836106. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  30. ^ Jennings-Thurman Marriage Takes Place in Tyler Church
  31. ^ "Will Jennings, Lyricist For 'Tears in Heaven,' 'My Heart Will Go On,' Dies". Best Classic Bands. September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  32. ^ Oganesyan, Natalie (September 7, 2024). "Will Jennings Dies: Oscar- and Grammy-Winning 'My Heart Will Go On' Co-Writer Was 80". Deadline.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  33. ^ "'My Heart Will Go On' and 'Tears in Heaven' songwriter Will Jennings dies at 80". Los Angeles Times. September 8, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
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