Norman Gimbel

Norman Gimbel was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 16,1927, and graduated from the Baruch School of Business. He then went on to receive an M.A. from Teachers College of Columbia University. He was self-taught in music, but soon decided to make it his career. His first job in the music business was as an office boy for the publisher Edwin H. Morris. Soon, Gimbel became a contract songwriter. He had small successes as early as 1952, but his first big hit came in 1956 with "Canadian Sunset" (music by Eddie Haywood).

Frank Loesser became his mentor, and for three years the two worked closely. Through Loesser, Gimbel met composer Moose Charlap, with whom he wrote two Broadway musicals, Whoop-Up and The Conquering Hero.

In 1963, Gimbel was introduced by a publisher to a group of young Brazilian composers, including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and Baden Powell, and he would go on to write English language versions of many of their songs. Most notably, he wrote the English lyric for Marcos Valle's "Summer Samba" and English lyrics for Jobim’s "Medititation" and "Flow Insensitive". His English lyric for Jobim's “The Girl From Ipanema", won him his first Grammy award. He would also write English lyrics for Michel Legrand's music for the 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (original French lyrics by Jacques Demy).

In the fall of 1967, he moved to Hollywood, where he became very active in film and television. Among the composers he worked with there were Lalo Schiffrin, Elmer Bernstein, Bill Conti, Charles Fox, Dave Grusin, Maurice Jarre, Francis Lai, Peter Matz, David Shire, and Pat Williams.

In 1973, Gimbel experienced another great success with Roberta Flack’s recording of “Killing Me Softly” (music by Charles Fox). The song would win him his second Grammy award. He had a huge hit when Roberta Flack recorded his 1973 song "Killing Me Softly", with music by Charles Fox. In 1979, he won an Academy Award for ' Best Original Song for "It Goes Like It Goes" from Norma Rae (music by David Shire). Working with composer Charles Fox, he has written lyrics for the theme songs of many TV series, including Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman.