Will Jennings, whose many hit collaborations included work with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, has died at age 80. His agent Sam Schwartz advised the Los Angeles Times that Jennings handed away at dwelling in Texas however didn’t reveal a explanation for loss of life.

He first served with as principal co-writer with Winwood on 1980’s million-selling Arc of Diver, together with the Top 10 hit “While You See a Chance.” Their partnership peaked two albums later with 1986’s multi-platinum worldwide smash Back within 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 had been 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 advised 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 additionally co-wrote “Valerie,” a 1982 single that peaked within the Top 10 in 1987 after Tom Lord-Alge remixed the tune 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 observe, and the Top 10 single “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?” Both had been co-written with Jennings.

Among Jennings’ different collaborators had been 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 coated the Grammy-nominated “Higher Love,” which was Winwood’s first-ever Billboard chart-topping tune. Jennings later co-wrote her No. 1 1987 tune “Didn’t We Almost Have It All.” He additionally wrote the lyrics for the Oscar-winning songs “Up Where We Belong,” carried out 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 tune 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 movie Rush – however the platinum Top 5 single was truly a tribute to Clapton’s son Conor, who’d not too long ago died at age 4 after falling out of an open window in a New York City excessive rise.

“We wrote a song called ‘Help Me Up’ for the end of the movie,” Jennings advised 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 accomplished the observe – together with the strains “time can bring you down / time can bend your knees,” though he mentioned, “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

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