Gerry Goffin obit

Gerry Goffin, US lyricist, dies at 75

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Goffin penned more than 50 top 40 hits, including (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and Savin' All My Love for You

 

He was not on the list.

The Oscar-nominated songwriter Gerry Goffin, whose hits included Will You Love Me Tomorrow and (You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman, has died aged 75, his wife Michelle said. Goffin, who was previously married to his writing partner Carole King, was also behind Up on the Roof and Savin' All My Love for You.

In all, Goffin was responsible for more than 50 top 40 songs in the US. He and King married in 1959 when they were teenagers. They divorced in 1968, but their productive partnership led them to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three years later.

In a statement, King said he was her "first love" and had a "profound impact" on her life. "Gerry was a good man with a dynamic force, whose words and creative influence will resonate for generations to come," King said. "His legacy to me is our two daughters, four grandchildren, and our songs that have touched millions and millions of people, as well as a lifelong friendship."

Among Goffin's other compositions were Pleasant Valley Sunday, recorded by the Monkees, and Some Kind of Wonderful by the Drifters. He was also behind Take Good Care of My Baby, which was recorded by Bobby Vee, and The Locomotion for Little Eva, which was also a hit for Kylie Minogue.

The love affair between Goffin and King became the subject of the Tony Award-nominated musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, on Broadway. King, while backing the project, avoided seeing it for months because it dredged up such sad memories. She finally sat through it in April this year, the Associated Press reported.

The musical shows the two composing their songs at Aldon Music, the Brill Building publishing company in Manhattan that also employed Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield and Carole Bayer Sager. The show ends just as King is enjoying fame for her groundbreaking solo album, Tapestry. Though it also alleges that Goffin's womanising and mental instability were causes of the breakup, he happily attended the opening of the musical.

After their divorce, Goffin garnered an Academy Award nomination with Michael Masser for the theme to the 1975 film Mahogany for Diana Ross. He also earned a Golden Globe nomination for So Sad the Song in 1977 from the film Pipe Dreams.

Goffin was born in Brooklyn in 1939 and was working as a chemist when he met King at Queens College.

"She was interested in writing rock'n'roll, and I was interested in writing this Broadway play," Goffin told Vanity Fair in 2001. "So we had an agreement where she would write [music] to the play if I would write [lyrics] to some of her rock'n'roll melodies. And eventually it came to be a boy-and-girl relationship. Eventually I began to lose heart in my play, and we stuck to writing rock'n'roll."

He is survived by his five children and his wife.