Will Jennings, whose many hit collaborations included work with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, has died at age 80. His agent Sam Schwartz told the Los Angeles Times that Jennings passed away at home in Texas but did not reveal a cause of death.
He first worked with as principal co-writer with Winwood on 1980’s million-selling Arc of Diver, including the Top 10 hit “While You See a Chance.” Their partnership peaked two albums later with 1986’s multi-platinum international smash Back in the High Life. Jennings co-wrote “Higher Love,” “Back in the High Life Again” and “The Finer Things” with Winwood, all of which reached the Top 20.
Their collaborations were decidedly low key, Jennings later revealed. “We hang out. We go down to the pub, drink some beer, take walks – just live and talk about this and that, spend some time,” he told Songfacts. “It’s not like you show up and start writing. Show up and take a look around, see what the weather’s like.”
READ MORE: Top 10 Steve Winwood Songs
Jennings also co-wrote “Valerie,” a 1982 single that peaked in the Top 10 in 1987 after Tom Lord-Alge remixed the song for the Winwood compilation Chronicles. Winwood’s 1988 chart-topping multi-platinum album Roll With It included his second No. 1 Billboard hit, the title track, and the Top 10 single “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?” Both were co-written with Jennings.
Among Jennings’ other collaborators were Jimmy Buffett, Roy Orbison, B.B. King and Christopher Cross. “I’m deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend and collaborator Will Jennings,” Cross wrote on X. “Working with Will was a master class in lyric writing for me. He was the consummate wordsmith and his gift to the world is eternal.”
Whitney Houston covered the Grammy-nominated “Higher Love,” which was Winwood’s first-ever Billboard chart-topping song. Jennings later co-wrote her No. 1 1987 song “Didn’t We Almost Have It All.” He also wrote the lyrics for the Oscar-winning songs “Up Where We Belong,” performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes for An Officer and Gentleman, and Celine Dion‘s “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, the top-selling song of 1998.
Watch Steve Winwood’s ‘Higher Love’ Video
How Will Jennings Helped Eric Clapton Through Tragedy
Eric Clapton, Winwood’s former bandmate in Blind Faith, memorably co-wrote “Tears in Heaven” with Jennings for the 1991 film Rush – but the platinum Top 5 single was actually a tribute to Clapton’s son Conor, who’d recently died at age 4 after falling out of an open window in a New York City high rise.
“We wrote a song called ‘Help Me Up’ for the end of the movie,” Jennings told Songfacts, “then Eric saw another place in the movie for a song and he said to me, ‘I want to write a song about my boy.’ Eric had the first verse of the song written – which, to me, is all the song – but he wanted me to write the rest of the verse lines and the release.”
Jennings completed the track – including the lines “time can bring you down / time can bend your knees,” even though he said, “I told him that it was so personal he should write everything himself. He told me that he had admired the work I did with Steve Winwood, and finally there was nothing else but to do as he requested, despite the sensitivity of the subject. This is a song so personal and so sad … it is unique in my experience of writing songs.”
Watch Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’ Video
Eric Clapton Albums Ranked
Eric Clapton had already carved out a respectable career for himself before he issued his first solo album.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
The Rock Supergroups You Totally Forgot