Prolific singer-songwriter Cynthia Weil has died aged 82.
Weil, best known for co-writing songs with husband Barry Mann, died Thursday night.
Her daughter, the psychotherapist Dr. Jenn Mann, told TMZ, “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the best mother, grandmother and wife our family could have asked for. She was my best friend, my confidant and a pioneer for women in music.”
Mann, who has been married to Weil for almost 62 years, added: “I’m a lucky man. I had two for one, my wife and one of the greatest songwriters in the world.”
According to Weil’s family, “Her lyrics have touched the hearts and souls of hundreds of millions of people around the world, making her one of the most celebrated songwriters of the 20th century.”
Weil and Mann are credited for writing the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ and You’re My Soul and Inspiration, Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again and Make Your Own Kind of Music” known. by Mama Cass Elliot, The Drifters and On Broadway by George Benson. She also wrote a song for the great Celine Dion, “Love Doesn’t Ask Why,” which is featured on the 1993 album The Color of My Love.
Together they were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won two Grammys in 1986 for Linda Ronstadt’s “Somewhere Out There” and James Ingram’s “An American Tail”.
They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Ahmet Ertegun Award in 2010.
Joseph Marzullo/WENN.com