Stephen F. Austin State University

Any revolution of a radio dial is virtually guaranteed to uncover at least one song written by Will Jennings.
The native East Texan was honored by his peers Thursday night in New York for a body of work that has been recorded by the likes of Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Joe Cocker and Celine Dion, as he joined the 2006 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Jennings joins an induction class that includes country star Mac Davis; Thom Bell, a pioneer of the '70s "Philly soul" sound; Sylvia Moy, who co-wrote Motown classics such as "My Cherie Amour"; and Hank Cosby, who also co-wrote celebrated hits for Motown stars, including "Tears of a Clown" - as well as Kris Kristofferson and folk icons Peter, Paul & Mary, both picking up lifetime achievement awards.

"I have never thought of myself and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in the same sentence," Jennings said in a telephone interview from New York. "It's a great thrill because it's your peers. I've been anticipating this for a long time, I'm glad it's here and I made it to New York."

Jennings, a Kilgore native who grew up near New Chapel Hill "in the country, with a cotton gin and oil wells pumping, within the sound of a black Baptist church," is best known for the songs that brought him within Oscar's gilded embrace.

"People Alone," a collaboration with "Mission: Impossible" composer Lalo Schifrin for the film "The Competition," bagged Jennings his first Oscar nomination in 1981. "Up Where We Belong," written with Jack Nitzche and Buffy Saint-Marie for Taylor Hackford's "An Officer and a Gentleman," scored statuettes for the trio in 1983.

Academy Award No. 2 came for Jennings, with partner James Horner, in 1998 for "My Heart Will Go On" - the Celine Dion-crooned love theme for "Titanic" that sold more than 9 million copies, remains the world's top-selling sheet music after almost a decade, and would earn Jennings his first Grammy Award the following year.

"'My Heart Will Go On' is probably the finest song I have worked on; it's one everybody knows," Jennings said.

He described winning an Oscar as "otherworldly," especially after putting the prospect of winning out of his mind on "The Competition."

"I sort of figured the first time we weren't going to do anything," Jennings said, adding that he's penned the occasional ditty he'd rather forget (he won't name any titles.) "I just go in and try to do the job as well as I can, and hope for the best. Because you never know."

' ... SHORES OF DREAMS'

He wrote his first song at 15 - the never-recorded "On the Shores of Dreams," inspired by his love for a cattleman's daughter - but took the long road on the path to musical glory. Graduating from Chapel Hill High School in 1961, he attended Tyler Junior College on music and journalism scholarships before enrolling in Stephen F. Austin State University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1967. After college, Jennings took a job as an English instructor at TJC before moving on to a teaching assignment at the University of Wisconsin.

Jennings experienced enough moderate success as he tried his hand at songwriting in Wisconsin to move on to Nashville in 1971, getting his industry kick-start from Troy Seales at the Danor Music publishing house. His first song he recalls being recorded was by the country act The Adrissi Brothers - "a song that's long gone by the way," Jennings said.

"It was thrilling. In Nashville where you have all these great musicians, even the lesser songs sounded great," he said.

The move to Los Angeles in 1974 put his career on the fast track, with a stable of hits to follow in the next several years, recorded by artists including Barry Manilow ("Looks Like We Made It"), Helen Reddy ("Somewhere in the Night"), Dionne Warwick ("I'll Never Love This Way Again," a 1979 Grammy winner for the soul chanteuse), and later, comeback kid Winwood ("Valerie," "Higher Love").

The gold statuettes on the mantel at the Santa Barbara, Calif., home he shares with his wife, Carole, suggest a reputation as primarily a film composer - a run that began with "Let Me Go Till I'm Gone," recorded by Dobie Gray for the 1978 drama "Casey's Shadow," and would lead to the Grammy-nominated "Tears in Heaven," the bittersweet ballad he co-wrote with Clapton for "Rush."

Yet Jennings considers movie scores and themes as side projects ("I've always gone back and forth") in a career that bears more imprints on albums, a trend that continues in collaborations with former J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf and 24-year-old Australian country guitarist Jed Hughes (former bandmate of Rodney Crowell, with whom Jennings wrote hits such as "Please Remember Me").

Whether his partner is Crowell, King, Richard Kerr or Jimmy Buffett, Jennings confesses to no set "process" in shaping a song. Sometimes it's two guys in a room with a piano; sometimes they're 1,000 miles apart and e-mailing MP3 files. And inspiration comes in myriad ways: He's been known to use everything from typewriters and word processors to Post-It Notes and napkins to get lyrics on the record. Seeing a middle-aged man walking rapidly, muttering to himself, is not an uncommon sight among those who cross paths with Jennings.

"Sometimes I'll be walking down the street and something will hit me full on, and I have to try to get somewhere fast and get it down," he said. "I have to keep repeating it to myself before I forget a line."

Jennings, who will celebrate his 62nd birthday while in New York, plans a trip to Tyler within the next two weeks to join his family, including sisters Joyce Hudnall and Gloria Townsend (neither of whom were able to attend Thursday's induction), and celebrate his "most marvelous good luck."

"Making a living at what I want to do, it's been a blessing all the way," he said. "As Saint Augustine said, 'When you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.' And that's the story of my life."

Jonathan Perry is Arts & Entertainment editor. He can be reached at 903.596.6301. e-mail: jrperry@tylerpaper.com

©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2006