Norman Gimbel

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Norman Gimbel is an Oscar- and Grammy-winning American lyricist of pop songs and movie themes.

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[edit] Early successes

Norman Gimbel was self-taught in music and soon decided to make it his career. Initially employed by music publisher David Blum, he quickly progressed to become a contract songwriter with Edwin H. Morris Music. Small successes and moderate fame came as a result of lively novelty songs "Ricochet" (1953), used as the centerpiece of the 1954 Judy Canova vehicle Ricochet Romance, and "A Whale of a Tale", sung by Kirk Douglas in another 1954 production, Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Greater success arrived with Dean Martin's recording of "Sway", which reached #6 on the UK Singles Chart, followed by his first big U.S. hit, Andy Williams' 1956 version of "Canadian Sunset", which climbed to #1.

[edit] Two Broadway musicals

Top songwriter Frank Loesser became Gimbel's mentor and, through Loesser, he met composer Moose Charlap with whom he wrote the first of his numerous songs to appear in films, "Past the Age of Innocence", from the 1951 Monogram musical, Rhythm Inn. At the end of the decade, he collaborated with Charlap on the only Broadway musicals for which he has written lyrics, Whoop-Up and The Conquering Hero. Whoop-Up is set within a modern-day Native American community located on a reservation. The novel which provided the basis for the show, Stay Away, Joe by Dan Cushman, was filmed ten years later, under its original title, as a vehicle for Elvis Presley, using an unrelated screenplay and score. The show's Joe was portrayed by Ralph Young, who achieved singing stardom in the 1960s and 70s as one-half of Sandler and Young. The production was directed by Cy Feuer and choreographed by Onna White who received a Tony nomination for her contribution to the show. Another nomination went to Julienne Marie for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Cushman, along with Feuer and Ernest H. Martin, also wrote the book of the show. Eleven of the eighteen songs by Gimbel and Charlap were heard in act I, and the remaining seven in act II. Whoop Up opened at the Shubert Theatre on December 22, 1958 and, despite some encouraging reviews, closed after a disappointing 56 performances on February 7, 1959.

The opening night of Conquering Hero was almost two years later, on January 16, 1961. The production, at the ANTA Playhouse, had a book by Larry Gelbart, based on Preston Sturges' 1944 screenplay and film Hail the Conquering Hero. It was directed by Albert Marre, choreographed by Todd Bolender and starred Tom Poston as Woodrow Truesmith, the character originated in the movie by Eddie Bracken. Ella Raines' Libby was portrayed by Kay Brown, and Lionel Stander, as Sgt. Murdock, took over William Demarest's Sgt. Heppelfinger. Act I had ten of Gimbel's and Charlap's fourteen songs, while four songs (and four reprises from act I) were sung in act II. Ultimately, Hero fared even worse than Whoop-Up, closing on January 21, after only 7 performances.

[edit] Hit English-language lyrics to Brazilian and French songs

In 1963, Gimbel was introduced by music publisher Lou Levy to a group of young Brazilian bossa nova composers, including Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá and Baden Powell, for whose works he started writing English-language lyrics. Most notably, he created the lyrics for Marcos Valle's "So Nice (Summer Samba)" as well as Jobim’s "How Insensitive?", "The Girl from Ipanema" (turning it into a top hit for Astrud Gilberto) and "Meditation", which has gained the status of a "classic" of jazz and Brazilian music. He also provided the lyrics for French composers Michel Legrand (two themes from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg—"Watch What Happens" and the Oscar-nominated "I Will Wait for You"), Eddy Marnay and Emil Stern ("Amazing") and singer-composer Gilbert Bécaud ("You'll See" and other songs).

[edit] Long career as award-winning lyricist of film songs

In October 1967 Norman Gimbel moved to Los Angeles, where he became very active in film and television. Among the Hollywood composers with whom he worked were Elmer Bernstein, Bill Conti, Jack Elliott, Charles Fox, Dave Grusin, Maurice Jarre, Quincy Jones, Fred Karlin, Francis Lai, Peter Matz, Lalo Schifrin, David Shire and Pat Williams.

Gimbel received three Golden Globes nominations, the first of which was for the song "Stay" (written with Ernest Gold), heard in the 1969 film The Secret of Santa Vittoria. The other two were for the songs "Richard's Window", from 1975's The Other Side of the Mountain, and "Ready to Take a Chance Again", used in 1978's Foul Play. Both songs, written with his frequent collaborator Charles Fox, were also nominated for Oscars.

In 1973 Gimbel experienced another great success with "Killing Me Softly with His Song" for Roberta Flack again with Charles Fox. The song won him his second Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The same year his and Fox's "I Got a Name" from the 1973 film The Last American Hero was voted "Best Film Song" by the Young New York Film Critics. In 1979 he had his only Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series" (The Paper Chase), which he again shared with Fox. Los Angeles theater work with Fox included a rock/pop version of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the city's Shakespeare Festival, seen at the John Ford Theater, and The Eleventh, which played the Sunset Theater in Los Angeles. 1980 was a banner year at the Oscars for Norman Gimbel with a win for "Original Music Score" and "Best Original Song" ("It Goes Like It Goes"), written with David Shire for the film Norma Rae.

Continuing his working relationship with Charles Fox, Gimbel has written lyrics for the theme songs of many TV series, including Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days, Angie, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, the Emmy-winning Paper Chase theme and the song-score for Pufnstuf, the 1970 film version of the 1969-71 Saturday-morning cult series H.R. Pufnstuf.

In 1984, Norman Gimbel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has continued to be active in film into 2007, He has written all the songs for 2001's Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure ("A World Without Fences"), in addition to having provided song scores for The Phantom Tollbooth, A Troll in Central Park, The Thief and the Cobbler (a/k/a Arabian Knight) and Where's Poppa?. Over the years, his songs have been used in over ninety films which, in the 2000s, have included V for Vendetta ("The Girl from Ipanema"), Shall We Dance? ("Sway"), Mr. & Mrs. Smith ("The Girl From Ipanema") and 2046 ("Sway"). Additional songs were also used in the films Johnny Dangerously (with composer John Morris), Invincible ("I Got a Name"), Catch Me If You Can ("The Girl From Ipanema"), Deconstructing Harry ("The Girl from Ipanema"), Click ("So Nice"), No Reservations ("Sway") and The Invasion ("The Girl From Ipanema").

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