Biography
Grammy- and Academy Award-winning songwriter Will Jennings launched his film work in 1976 with The Commitment. Shortly thereafter he joined forces with composer Richard Kerr to create Barry Manilow’s 1977 number-one pop single “Looks Like We Made It,” and Manilow returned to the Top Ten two years later with their follow-up “Somewhere in the Night.” Jennings received his initial Academy Award nomination for “People Alone,” featured in the 1980 film The Competition. He then supplied multiple tracks to Steve Winwood’s widely praised 1981 album Arc of a Diver and reconvened with the singer the next year for Talking Back to the Night, which included the successful single “Valerie.” Teaming with Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jennings captured his first Oscar for “Up Where We Belong,” the chart-topping Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes duet from An Officer and a Gentleman. He next contributed to Jimmy Buffett’s 1984 release Riddles in the Sand and its 1985 successor Last Mango in Paris before rejoining Winwood for the 1986 blockbuster Back in the High Life, earning a Song of the Year Grammy nomination for the number-one hit “Higher Love.” In 1991 he partnered with Eric Clapton on the poignant “Tears in Heaven,” drawn from the soundtrack to Rush. His most celebrated composition arrived in 1997 with the Titanic ballad “My Heart Will Go On,” written alongside James Horner and performed by Celine Dion; the track collected numerous Oscars, Grammys, and Golden Globes while becoming the most-played radio single ever recorded. Jennings passed away on September 6, 2024, at the age of eighty.