Music legend Will Jennings dead at 80: He co-wrote hit songs for Celine Dion and Eric Clapton
Will Jennings co-wrote Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On and Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven.
Songwriter Will Jennings’s carer Martha Sherrod told The Hollywood Reporter, that Jennings, who had been declining in health for the past few years, died at his home in Tyler, Texas, USA.
Will Jennings was born in Kilgore in Texas on June 27, 1944 and his name at birth was Wilbur Hershel Jennings. Before moving to Hollywood, he taught as a professor at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas, Austin State University and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Musician Peter Wolf paid tribute to Will Jennings on Facebook and said: “A lot of Good Ones Gone.. A sad time, the passing of Will Jennings, a maestro, brilliant mind and a gentle spirit. Will shared his talents with me, ever patient and generous, he was a treasured friend and teacher, enriching my life in so many ways. It was an enormous honor to have worked with such a musical genius for so many years. To quote one of his favorite poets, W.B Yeats ‘Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say, my glory was I had such friends.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “He won his first Academy Award, alongside Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, for An Officer and a Gentleman‘s “Up Where We Belong” in 1983. He was first nominated with Lalo Schifrin in 1981 for “People Alone” from The Competition. He also won three Grammys, two Golden Globes and a slew of other prizes.”
Will Jennings also worked with composer Richard Kerr on Barry Manilow’s hit ‘Looks Like We Made It,’ and two years later, worked on his top 10 hit, ‘Somewhere in the Night.’ He also worked with Eric Clapton’s hit song ‘Tears in Heaven’ which won song of the year at the Grammys and was nominated for a Globe.
In 2006, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, this came ten years after he won his second Oscar for Celine Dion’s song ‘My Heart Will Go On,’ which featured in the hit movie Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
