Iconic songwriter Cynthia Weil, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, died on Thursday at the age of 82.

Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Jenn Mann who said, “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the greatest mother, grandmother, and wife our family could ever ask for. She was my best friend, confidant, and my partner in crime and an idol and trailblazer for women in music.”

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Who was Cynthia Weil?

Cynthia Weil wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. She was born on October 18, 1940, in New York City. She was raised in a Conservative Jewish family.

Some of her songwriting credits include  The Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin, Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again, The Drifters’ and George Benson’s On Broadway, The Crystals’ Uptown, The Animals’ We Gotta Get Out of this Place and more.

She married her husband in August 1961. She and her husband created songs for a number of contemporary artists and won several Grammy Awards as well as Academy Award nominations for their compositions for movies.

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According to her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography, “Mann and Weil’s… epic ballads to outright rockers placed an emphasis on meaningful lyrics in their songwriting. With Weil writing the words and Mann the music, they came up with a number of songs that addressed such serious subjects as racial and economic divides[,] ‘Uptown’, …and the difficult reality of making it in the big city. ‘Only in America’… tackled segregation and racism, making it rather too controversial for the Drifters, who were the intended artists. ‘We Gotta Get out of This Place’ became an anthem for [the] Vietnam soldier, antiwar protesters, and young people who viewed it as an anthem of greater opportunities.”

In 1987, she was inducted with her husband, Mann, into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2010, she became the first woman to receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.