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Joel Hirschhorn

 
Artist: Joel Hirschhorn
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Joel Hirschhorn

  • Genres: Gospel
  • Instrument: Keyboards, Producer, Composer

Biography

Screen composer Joel Hirschhorn earned a pair of Academy Awards co-writing themes to two of the biggest disaster films of the early '70s, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Born in the Bronx, NY, in 1938, Hirschhorn attended New York City's High School for the Performing Arts and later studied at Hunter College. After fronting the rock band the Highlighters, he turned his focus to songwriting, establishing a long-running partnership with Columbia Records producer Al Kasha. After some limited success in the late '60s, most notably landing their "Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby" on the soundtrack to the 1967 Elvis Presley vehicle Speedway, Hirschhorn and Kasha hit paydirt when their song "The Morning After" was featured in The Poseidon Adventure, the Hollywood blockbuster about a luxury liner capsized by a giant wave. Recorded by Maureen McGovern, "The Morning After" proved a major pop hit, and in 1973 won its authors an Academy Award. Hirschhorn and Kasha repeated the trick two years later with "We May Never Love Like This Again," their Oscar-winning theme to The Towering Inferno, an all-star feature spotlighting a high-rise engulfed in flames. The duo also earned Oscar nominations in 1977 for their score to the animated Pete's Dragon, with singer Helen Reddy's version of their "Candle on the Water" also nominated for Best Original Song. In 1981 Hirschhorn and Kasha turned to Broadway with the Tony-nominated Copperfield, a year later receiving another Tony bid for their work on the updated Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In all, Hirschhorn and Kasha's songs sold over 90 million records, and they even collaborated on three books: 1979's If They Ask You, You Can Write a Song, 1985's Notes on Broadway, and 1986's Reaching the Morning After. On his own, Hirschhorn wrote 2001's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting. That same year, he and wife Jennifer wrote Musical Chairs, a play produced in North Hollywood. Hirschhorn served as a theater critic for Variety at the time of his death on September 17, 2005. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Joel Hirschhorn
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Joel Hirschhorn, (December 18, 1937 – September 17, 2005), was an American songwriter. During a successful career, he won the Academy Award for Best Song on two occasions. He also wrote songs for a number of prominent musicians, including Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison (the combined sales of albums to which he contributed is over 90 million)[citation needed].

Hirschhorn was born in the Bronx and attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. After graduating, Hirschhorn became a regular performer on New York’s nightclub circuit, both as a solo singer and as a member of the rock & roll band, The Highlighters.

During the mid-1960s, Hirschhorn branched out into writing film soundtracks. The first score he wrote was for Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965), which was directed by his friend Joseph Cates. He worked with Cates again the following year in The Fat Spy. However, the film was received so badly that Hirschhorn struggled to find work in Hollywood for a number of years afterwards.[citation needed]

Hirschhorn, along with songwriting partner Al Kasha, did not work on another film until 1970’s The Cheyenne Social Club, which was directed by Gene Kelly. It was the pair’s next effort, for The Poseidon Adventure (1972), that really made their name. "The Morning After", a song they wrote in a single evening, won them their first Oscar and also topped the Billboard chart.

The Towering Inferno (1974) provided Hirschhorn and Kasha with their second Oscars, this time for the "We May Never Love Like This Again". Following this success, the pair received two further Oscar nominations, both for their work on Pete's Dragon (1977).

Hirschhorn and Kasha continued to work together until the late 1990s, their final collaboration being Rescue Me (1998). The pair also worked together on a number of Broadway musicals, receiving Tony Award for Best Original Score nominations for both Copperfield and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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