“Top” Ten Music Losses of 2024: Will Jennings (#5)

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Different city, same restaurant: hi from Chuy’s. Before I get on with my day I have to eat. I forgot to post this at the hotel, so now you get to endure another music great that you don’t know the name of, but you DEFINITELY know the music of. #5: Will Jennings And @NJChicaa ? Honestly, this isn’t a deliberate “six degrees of Jimmy Buffett” countdown (even though this is the third one in a row, and there’s still one to come!)! Oh, you don’t know Will Jennings by name, but start looking through this list of songs he co-wrote and you’ll start singing along! “Higher Love” (with Steve Winwood), “Tears in Heaven” (with Eric Clapton), and the Oscar-winning “Up Where We Belong.” Yes, AND Jimmy Bufffett: he co-wrote most of two albums with Buffett, Riddles in the Sand and Last Mango in Paris. Along the way, he picked up three Grammy awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and TWO Oscars (“Up Where We Belong” and “My Heart Will Go On”). With all of those accolades it’s no surprise that he ended up in both the Songwriters’ and Nashville Songwriters’ Halls of Fame. Yes, Nashville: acts like Rodney Crowell and Faith Hill covered his songs. His loss didn’t make headlines news, but the songs tell a different story: it should have been headline news. Will Jennings Born Wilbur Herschel Jennings, June 7, 1944, Kilgore, Texas Died September 6, 2024, Tyler, Texas (long illness) (age 80) HALLS OF FAME: Songwriters, Nashville Songwriters Two links for you. The one that should show up is Jennings winning the Oscar for “Up Where We Belong,” and the other is the song he co-wrote with Steve Winwood, “While You See a Chance.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-kCenQ9HE