Will Jennings, an Oscar-winning giant of American pop songwriting, has died per My Heart Will Go Onthe film’s theme song Titanice Up Where We Belong, the main theme of Officer and gentleman.
He was one of the most famous lyricists in the contemporary songwriting community: the news, published by Varietywas released by its historic publisher. No details were given on the cause of death, but Jennings, 80, had been ill for some time.
Jennings was best known as co-author of the themes of Titanic (recorded by Celine Dion) e Officer and gentleman (sung by Joe Cocker e Jennifer Warnes) which had earned him two Academy Awards, but the author was equally famous for a third movie song, Tears in Heaven (played by Eric Clapton), from the movie Rushwhich earned him a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and two Grammys for album of the year and song of the year.
Jennings also achieved major success with songs recorded by Whitney Houston, Steve Winwood, Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow e Tim McGrawamong others.
The collaboration of Jennings con Steve Winwood was particularly fruitful: the two artists produced two No. 1 hits such as Higher Love e Roll With It.
Whitney Houston had brought Didn’t We Almost Have It All in first place, and Barry Manilow had done the same thing with Looks Like We Made Itjust to name two other pop classics penned by Jennings.
The American author was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006 and was later named a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well..
In 2023, Jennings’ song catalog was jointly acquired by All Clear Music and Fuji Music Group. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, Billboard he estimated the value of the catalog in 60-70 million dollars.
The list of artists who have worked with him includes Roy Orbison, Mariah Carey, B.B. King, Rodney Crowell, Diana Ross, Faith Hill, Jimmy Buffett e Joe Sample: the latter wrote the classic together with Jennings Street Lifebrought to success by Randy Crawford and the Crusaders.