His collaboration with composer James Horner earned him the Grammy Award for “song of the year” in 1999 for the hit performed by Celine Dion.
My heart will continue , Where we belong or even Didn’t we have almost everything, Will Jennings had co-written on bigger hits. The American singer-songwriter died Saturday, September 7 at the age of 80, his publisher confirmed to Variety . While the cause of his disappearance remains unknown, his health had declined. “ for five or six years »reports his caregiver to Hollywood Reporter .
Best known for co-writing the title My heart will continue, with James Horner, played by Celine Dion for the film Titanic , which allowed them to obtain the Grammy Award of “ song of the year » In 1999, Will Jennings was one of the most famous lyricists of his generation. For example, he co-wrote Tears in Heaven with Eric Clapton, for the movie Rushing (Grammy Award of the “ song of the year » in 1993). He is also the author of the title Where we belong The problem is not the movie. Officer and Gentleman, which earned him the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for “ best original film song » in 1983.
Will Jennings has also worked with other artists such as Whitney Houston for whom he notably co-wrote Didn’t we have almost everything,which reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (a weekly ranking of the 100 most popular songs in the United States) in 1987. He also achieved this number 1 with Looks like we made it, performed by Barry Manilow in 1976. During his career, he also worked with Steve Winwood, Dionne Warwick, Roy Orbison and Mariah Carey. Will Jennings was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.
“A musical genius”
If Celine Dion has not yet paid tribute to him, one of her friends, the musician Peter Wolf, has. He described on Instagram a “ maestro, a brilliant and gentle spirit ». It was “ a valuable friend and teacher »he wrote, adding that he had had “ the immense honor of having worked with such a musical genius for so many years ».
Will Jennings had written many songs for Peter Wolf, especially for the album Midnight memories, released in 2010, where 8 out of 14 tracks were written by him.