Norman Gimbel

Norman Gimbel (November 16, 1927 – December 19, 2018) was an American lyricist and songwriter whose work spanned Broadway, Hollywood film, and television. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Lottie (Nass) and businessman Morris Gimbel, whose parents were Jewish immigrants from Austria, he studied English at Baruch College and Columbia University. Self-taught in music, he began his professional life working for music publisher David Blum before becoming a contract songwriter with Edwin H. Morris Music.

Gimbel's earliest credits included the novelty song "Tennessee Wig Walk," composed by Larry Coleman and recorded by Bonnie Lou in 1953, as well as "Ricochet," popularized that same year by Teresa Brewer and later connected to the 1954 Judy Canova film Ricochet Romance. Also in 1954, Kirk Douglas sang his "A Whale of a Tale" in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. His profile rose further when Dean Martin recorded "Sway," for which Gimbel supplied English lyrics to a song originally written in Spanish, followed by Andy Williams' chart-topping recording of "Canadian Sunset" in 1956.

Songwriter Frank Loesser served as Gimbel's mentor and introduced him to composer Moose Charlap, with whom he collaborated on both of his Broadway musicals. Whoop-Up, for which Gimbel wrote the book and lyrics, opened at the Shubert Theatre on December 22, 1958, and closed on February 7, 1959, after 56 performances. His second Broadway credit, The Conquering Hero, opened on January 16, 1961, and fared considerably worse, shutting down on January 21 after only seven performances.

In 1963, music publisher Lou Levy introduced Gimbel to a circle of Brazilian bossa nova composers that included Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, and Baden Powell. Gimbel wrote English-language lyrics for a number of their compositions, among them Jobim's "The Girl from Ipanema," "How Insensitive," and "Meditation," as well as Marcos Valle's "Summer Samba." He performed similar work for French composers, providing lyrics for Michel Legrand's "Watch What Happens" and the Academy Award-nominated "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and for Belgian jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans' "Bluesette."

In October 1968, Gimbel relocated to Los Angeles, where he concentrated on film and television work. He received four Golden Globe nominations during this period: for "Circles in the Water" with composer Francis Lai, "Stay" with composer Ernest Gold from The Secret of Santa Vittoria, "Richard's Window" from The Other Side of the Mountain, and "Ready to Take a Chance Again" from Foul Play, the latter two written with his most frequent collaborator, Charles Fox. Both "Richard's Window" and "Ready to Take a Chance Again" also received Academy Award nominations.

In 1971, Gimbel and Fox signed singer-songwriter Lori Lieberman to a management contract. Lieberman had drafted lyrics inspired by a Don McLean performance; Gimbel developed those lyrics further while Fox composed the music, and the three collaborators adapted a title from Gimbel's notebook of ideas. The resulting song, "Killing Me Softly with His Song," was recorded by Lieberman in 1972. Roberta Flack recorded her own version in 1973, creating a major hit. Gimbel and Fox took full writing credit on the song, and it earned Gimbel a Grammy Award for Song of the Year. That same year, "I Got a Name," a Gimbel and Fox song recorded by Jim Croce for the film The Last American Hero, was voted Best Film Song by the Young New York Film Critics.

Gimbel's most decorated film credit came in 1980, when "It Goes Like It Goes," written with composer David Shire for the film Norma Rae, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1979. He also received an Emmy nomination in 1979 for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for The Paper Chase, shared with Fox. His television theme work with Fox included the theme songs for Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Wonder Woman, Angie, and The Bugaloos, among others. For film animation, he wrote all the songs for Disney's 2001 direct-to-video production Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, including "A World Without Fences," earning a Video Premiere Award nomination, and contributed song scores to The Phantom Tollbooth, Where's Poppa?, A Troll in Central Park, and The Thief and the Cobbler.

Gimbel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and remained active in film work into 2009. Over the course of his career, his songs appeared in more than ninety films.