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{"id":1511,"date":"2019-01-04T05:58:57","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T05:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidweathers.com\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2019-01-04T06:05:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T06:05:50","slug":"norman-gimbel-91-grammy-and-oscar-winning-lyricist-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidweathers.com\/archives\/1511","title":{"rendered":"Norman Gimbel, 91, Grammy and Oscar-Winning Lyricist, Is Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norman Gimbel, the wildly versatile Brooklyn-born lyricist who won a Grammy Award for a blues hit, \u201cKilling Me Softly With His Song\u201d; an Oscar for a folk ballad, \u201cIt Goes Like It Goes\u201d (from \u201cNorma Rae\u201d); and television immortality for the bouncy series themes to \u201cHappy Days\u201d and \u201cLaverne and Shirley,\u201d died on Dec. 19 at his home in Montecito, Calif. He was 91.<\/p>\n

The death was confirmed by his son Tony, managing partner of his father\u2019s music publishing company, Words West.<\/p>\n

Any attempt to categorize the elder Mr. Gimbel\u2019s musical leanings would be complicated. He was famous for the English lyrics of \u201cThe Girl From Ipanema,\u201d Antonio Carlos Jobim\u2019s 1964 bossa nova hit originally written in Portuguese. He also wrote English lyrics for Michel Legrand\u2019s music from Jacques Demy\u2019s romantic 1964 French film \u201cThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg,\u201d most notably \u201cI Will Wait for You\u201d (\u201cTill you\u2019re here beside me, till I\u2019m touching you\u201d) and for what became \u201cI Will Follow Him,\u201d a solid hit about teenage adoration sung by Little Peggy March (age 15) in 1963.<\/p>\n

Among his early hits, \u201cSway\u201d (\u201cWhen marimba rhythms start to play\u201d) was clearly Latin-accented, even when Dean Martin sang it, and \u201cCanadian Sunset,\u201d recorded by Andy Williams, became a jazz standard. \u201cReady to Take a Chance Again\u201d (from \u201cFoul Play,\u201d 1978), which earned an Oscar nomination, was a wistfully hopeful love song. Jim Croce\u2019s 1973 hit \u201cI Got a Name\u201d (\u201cMovin\u2019 me down the highway, rollin\u2019 down the highway, movin\u2019 ahead so life won\u2019t pass me by\u201d) was quintessential folk rock.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gimbel worked with David Shire on \u201cNorma Rae,\u201d but his most frequent collaborator may have been Charles Fox.<\/p>\n

\u201cKilling Me Softly,\u201d which brought Mr. Gimbel and Mr. Fox the song-of-the-year Grammy after Roberta Flack released it in 1973, had a conflict-ridden back story. Lori Lieberman, a California bistro singer, had recorded the song first (Mr. Fox and Mr. Gimbel were her producers and managers) and she said that the lyrics (among them, \u201cI felt he found my letters and read each one out loud\u201d) had been based on a poem she had written about attending an emotionally stirring Don McLean concert.<\/p>\n

The song, which became a hit again with the Fugees\u2019 hip-hop cover in the 1990s, is now sometimes listed as written \u201cin collaboration with\u201d Ms. Lieberman.<\/p>\n

Norman Gimbel was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 16, 1927. His parents \u2014 Morris Gimbel, who was in the restaurant business, and Lottie (Nass) Gimbel \u2014 were Jewish immigrants from Austria.<\/p>\n

Norman, who studied English at Baruch College and Columbia University, began his career working for the music publisher David Blum and for Edwin H. Morris & Company.
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His first hit was \u201cRicochet,\u201d written with Larry Coleman and Joe Darion and recorded by Teresa Brewer in 1953. The saucy, country-tinged pop song (\u201cIf you\u2019re careless with your kisses, find another turtle dove\u201d) rose to No. 2 on the charts.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gimbel soon moved to Los Angeles, where he worked more widely in television and film, teaming up with Mr. Fox on the themes to the hit sitcoms \u201cLaverne and Shirley\u201d (\u201cSchlemiel, schlimazle, Hassenpfeffer Incorporated\u201d) and \u201cHappy Days\u201d (\u201cSunday, Monday, happy days\u201d) and the 1970s series \u201cWonder Woman\u201d and \u201cThe Paper Chase.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984.<\/p>\n

Back in New York, Mr. Gimbel wrote lyrics for two Broadway musicals, \u201cWhoop-Up\u201d (1958) and \u201cThe Conquering Hero\u201d (1961), working with the composer Moose Charlap. The first show, set on an American Indian reservation, earned two Tony nominations; the second, starring Tom Poston as a fake war hero, had a book by Larry Gelbart. Despite positive reviews, both musicals flopped at the box office and closed early.<\/p>\n

Both of Mr. Gimbel\u2019s marriages, to the fashion model Elinor Rowley and to Victoria Carver, a lawyer, ended in divorce. In addition to his son Tony, survivors include another son, Peter; two daughters, Nelly Gimbel and Hannah Gimbel Dal Pozzo; and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gimbel gave relatively few interviews. In a six-minute segment as a contestant (alongside Burt Bacharach and Jerry Leiber) on \u201cPlay Your Hunch,\u201d an early Merv Griffin game show, he spoke only three words.<\/p>\n

That verbal reticence, though, served him well professionally. \u201cNorman had the extraordinary ability with his lyrics to capture the human condition with never an excessive word to describe a feeling or an action,\u201d Mr. Fox, the composer, said in a statement after his writing partner\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

He went on to praise Mr. Gimbel\u2019s ability to conjure an entire song with its first line, and he offered examples: \u201cTall and tan and young and lovely.\u201d \u201cStrumming my pain with his fingers.\u201d \u201cIf it takes forever, I will wait for you.\u201d
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