Will Jennings, the lyricist behind hits including “My Heart Will Go On” and “Up Where We Belong,” died Friday in his home in Texas, according to media reports. He was 80 years old.
Jennings was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006, 10 years after he penned the “Titanic” love theme performed by Céline Dion.
The lyricist won his first Oscar in 1983 for “Up Where We Belong” from “An Officer and a Gentleman,” which he co-wrote with Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie. He received his first nomination in 1981 for “People Alone” from “The Competition.” Jennings ultimately won two Oscars, three Grammys and two Golden Globes.
He enjoyed a prolific career in pop music in which he authored hit songs outside the film world including “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton, “Higher Love” and “Roll With It” by Steve Winwood, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” by Whitney Houston and “Looks Like We Made It” by Barry Manilow.
“My Heart Will Go On” was one of the most iconic songs of the 1990s and remains part of the American songbook. Jennings was brought in on the project by composer James Horner and later told Song Facts, “In the case of ‘Titanic,’ James Horner, I went over to his house and he told me the story of the script. Everybody knows what happened with Titanic, but there was the script there. And then he played me the theme that he had, and I just took it from there. I didn’t see any footage or read any of the script, but he told me the story, and then I had an inspiration and wrote the song.”
Jennings added that he was inspired by a woman he’d met a few years before writing the song. “I had met this very vibrant woman who was about 101 years old when I met her. That was two years before. And she came into my mind. And I realized she could have been on the Titanic. So I wrote everything from the point of view of a person of a great age looking back so many years. And it was the love story that made the film, of course.”
The songwriter was remembered on Instagram by singer Peter Wolf, who wrote, “‘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.’”
Will Jennings was born in Kilgore, Texas, on June 27, 1944. He graduated from Tyler Junior College and taught English prior to his career as a songwriter and lyricist.
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