Joel Hirschhorn

Joel Hirschhorn (December 18, 1937 – September 18, 2005) was an American songwriter and Broadway book writer born in the Bronx, New York. He attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, and after graduating performed on New York's nightclub circuit as both a solo singer and as a member of the rock and roll band The Highlighters.

Hirschhorn began writing film scores in the mid-1960s, with his first effort being the soundtrack for Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965), directed by Joseph Cates. He collaborated with Cates again the following year on The Fat Spy, though the film's poor reception made subsequent Hollywood work difficult to secure. His next film project, undertaken with songwriting partner Al Kasha, was The Cheyenne Social Club (1970), directed by Gene Kelly.

The partnership with Kasha gained widespread recognition through The Poseidon Adventure (1972). The song "The Morning After," which the two wrote in a single evening, won them the Academy Award for Best Original Song and reached the top of the Billboard chart. Hirschhorn and Kasha earned a second Academy Award for Best Original Song for "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno (1974). The pair received an additional Oscar nomination for "Candle on the Water," written for Disney's Pete's Dragon (1977). Their final collaboration was Rescue Me (1992).

On Broadway, Hirschhorn and Kasha worked together as a songwriting team and received Tony Award nominations for Best Original Score for both Copperfield and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in 1981 and 1983 respectively. Late in his career, Hirschhorn authored The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting, first published in 2001. Throughout his career he also wrote songs for artists including Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison.