Norman Gimbel

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Norman Gimbel (born November 16, 1927 in Brooklyn , † December 19, 2018 in Montecito , California ) was an American songwriter . He wrote the lyrics to Killing Me Softly with His Song and The Girl from Ipanema , among others . Together with the composer David Shire he won an Oscar in 1980 for the best original song for It Goes Like It Goes from Norma Rae , with Charles Fox in 1974 a Grammy for Killing Me Softly with His Song .

Life

Norman Gimbel then went to the Baruch College , the Columbia University . He first worked with the music publisher David Blum. In 1953 he wrote the lyrics for the song Ricochet Romance , which was sung by Teresa Brewer . He then worked as a songwriter for the music publisher Edwin H. Morris, for whom he wrote the lyrics to Canadian Sunset , Eddie Heywood composed the music. The number was sung by Andy Williams in 1956 . Gimbel was later signed by Frank Loesser , with whom he worked for three years. Gimbel released the Broadway musicals Whoop-Up (1958) and The Conquering Hero (1961) with composer Morris "Moose" Charlap .

From 1963 he wrote the English texts for the music of Brazilian composers such as Luiz Bonfá and Carlos Lyra . Among other things, he translated the Portuguese text for Garôta de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema) by Vinícius de Moraes (text) and Antônio Carlos Jobim (music) into English. The recording of this song by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto was recognized in the 1966 Grammy Awards in the Record of the Year category. For the film Die Regenschirme von Cherbourg (1964) he wrote the English lyrics for the songs Watch What Happens and I Will Wait for You to the music of Michel Legrand . In 1967 he moved to Hollywood , where he worked with composers such as Lalo Schifrin , Elmer Bernstein , Bill Conti , Quincy Jones and Burt Bacharach .

To the music of the composer Charles Fox he wrote the text for the number Killing Me Softly with His Song , for which both were awarded a Grammy in the category Song of the Year at the 1974 Grammy Awards . Together with the composer David Shire he wrote the text for It Goes Like It Goes for the film Norma Rae - A woman stands for her husband (1979), for which the two won an Academy Award in the category of best original song at the 1980 Academy Awards .

In 1984 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame . He died in Montecito in December 2018 at the age of 91.

Awards and nominations (selection)

Oscar

Grammy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Norman Gimbel, Famed Oscar- and Grammy-Winning Lyricist, Dies at 91 . Article dated December 28, 2018, accessed December 29, 2018.
  2. a b orf.at: Copywriter of "Killing Me Softly" and "Girl from Ipanema" dead . Article dated December 29, 2018, accessed December 29, 2018.
  3. a b c Songwriters Hall of Fame: Norman Gimbel . Retrieved December 29, 2018.