Jennifer Jean Warnes
(born March 3, 1947) is an American singer songwriter, arranger and record producer. She is best known for her rich soprano/contralto voice, her interpretations of compositions written by herself, Leonard Cohen, and Buffy Sainte Marie and many others, and for her capturing the record for the most Oscars sung by one vocalist through performance of the Theme Songs on four Oscar nominated soundtracks, three of which won the Oscar, in addition to theme songs on seventeen in popular films from 1983-1998. Her biggest hits were "Up Where We Belong" (duet with Joe Cocker, from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman
), "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" (duet with Bill Medley from the 1987 film Dirty Dancing
), both of which topped the Billboard
pop singles chart, and both won Grammies as well, and the country standard "Right Time of the Night".
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JENNIFER WARNES TICKETS
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Biography
Warnes was born in
Seattle, Washington. Her desire and ability to sing came early; at age seven she was offered her first recording contract, which her father turned down. She sang in church and local pageants, until age 17 when Warnes was offered an
opera scholarship to
Immaculate Heart College. She chose to sing Folk music as it became popularized by Joan Baez in the mid sixties. In 1968, after a few years with musical theatre and clubs, she signed with Parrot Records (a London Records subsidiary) and recorded her first LP. That same year, she joined the cast of the television show
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
.
Early in her career, industry advisers suggested her surname "Warnes" should be changed to the more common "Warren".
This led to confusion with Broadway and film actress
Jennifer Warren, so she returned to the name "Jennifer" and subsequently returning to "Jennifer Warnes".
In November 1968, Warnes (known then as "Jennifer Warren") portrayed the female lead in the Los Angeles, California production of the stage musical ''
Hair.
In 1971, she met
Canadian poet/songwriter
Leonard Cohen, who became a life-long friend. She would eventually tour
Europe with Cohen's band first as a back-up singer and then as vocal arranger and guest singer on Cohen's albums
Live Songs,
Various Positions,
I'm Your Man
,
The Future
,
Field Commander Cohen
and
Recent Songs
including a duet on a song titled "The Smokey Life". In 1972,
Reprise released her third album,
Jennifer
, which was produced by
John Cale. To date, in January 1987, Warnes released her critically acclaimed audiophile album,
Famous Blue Raincoat
, where Cohen performs with her as a duet vocalist on "Joan of Arc" and appears with Jennifer and Stevie Ray Vaughan performing the song "First We Take Manhattan". This archival quality production, embraced by audiophile critics and fans of fine recordings worldwide, has been re-mastered and re-released in 2007. The rights to
Famous Blue Raincoat
, in any format, are copyrighted and owned by the artist herself.
Her breakthrough single, "Right Time of the Night", released in 1976, hit No. 1 on Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart and No. 6 on the Hot 100 in May 1977.
Warnes recorded "
It Goes Like It Goes" from the 1979 motion picture
Norma Rae
and won the Oscar. Four subsequent Oscars nominations in total and three Oscar wins, topping Frank Sinatra's Oscar record.
Her 1979 single, "I Know a Heartache When I See One", was a top-twenty single on both the U.S. pop and country charts.
"One More Hour", the 1981 Warnes Theme Song composed by
Randy Newman from the motion picture
Ragtime,
was nominated for an Academy Award.
The following year, she teamed up with
Joe Cocker to sing "
Up Where We Belong". Written by
Buffy Sainte-Marie,
Will Jennings and
Jack Nitzsche for the motion picture
An Officer and a Gentleman, the song won yet another Oscar. The song was released as a single and hit No. 1 (for three weeks running) on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and stands as one of Warnes' biggest selling discs being certified 'Platinum' and still selling briskly at the present, worldwide, in dozens of new and old compilations. The same year, she recorded a moving performance of James Taylor's
Millworker
in the
American Playhouse production of
Working,'' based on the book written by
Studs Terkel (who also hosted the production), on
PBS.
In 1983, Warnes and Cocker won the
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Up Where We Belong", while earning the songwriters (
Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings) the
Golden Globe Award and the
Academy Award for Best Original Song.
On September 30, 1987 at the
Cocoanut Grove in
Los Angeles, she helped to coordinate the background vocals with
k.d. lang and
Bonnie Raitt for
Roy Orbison's television special
A Black and White Night
.
Then in 1987, to top a winning streak her duet with
Bill Medley, "
(I've Had) The Time of My Life", was included on the
Dirty Dancing
motion picture soundtrack album and reached No. 1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song won the 1988
Grammy Award for
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and won another
Academy Award for Best Original Song. This was also certified Platinum in U.S. sales and continues to be a massive success all over the world, making top ten lists in Europe on a regular basis.
She recorded a duet with
B. J. Thomas, "As Long As We've Got Each Other", the theme for the TV show,
Growing Pains
.
In August 2007, the Shout Factory Records label re-released the 20th anniversary edition of
Famous Blue Raincoat
, with a 24-page booklet and four additional songs.
Jennifer has contributed to tribute recordings to Ian Tyson, Warren Zevon and Alejandro Escovedo.
Discography
Albums
- I Can Remember Everything
Parrot 1968
- See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me
Parrot 1969
- Jennifer
Warner Bros Reprise label 1972 (Produced by John Cale)
- Jennifer Warnes
Arista 1976 US #43
- Shot Through The Heart
Arista 1979 US #94
- The Best of Jennifer Warnes
Arista 1982 US #47
- Famous Blue Raincoat
Cypress 1987 US #72 / UK #33
- Just Jennifer
unauthorized (England) 1992
- The Hunter
Boxstar 2008
- Best: First We Take Manhattan
Un=illegal and unauthorized (Germany) 2000
- The Well
Artist Owned masters 2001
- Platinum and Gold Collection
with errors in actual tracks, not Jennifer singing, 2004 (recalled)
- '' Famous Blue Raincoat- 20th Anniversary Edition-2007 CISCO
Selected singles
- 1976: "Right Time of the Night" US #6 Pop, #1 AC, #17 Country
- 1977: "I'm Dreaming" US #50 Pop, #9 AC
- 1979: "I Know A Heartache When I See One" US #19 Pop, #14 AC, #10 Country
- 1979: "Don't Make Me Over" US #67 Pop, #36 AC
- 1980: "When The Feeling Comes Around" US #45 Pop, #15 AC
- 1981: "Could It Be Love" US #47 Pop, #13 AC
- 1982: "Come To Me" US #107 Pop, #40 AC
- 1982: "Up Where We Belong" (duet with Joe Cocker) US #1 Pop, #3 AC (Platinum) / UK #7
- 1983: "Nights Are Forever" US #105 Pop, #8 AC
- 1983: "All The Right Moves" (duet with Chris Thompson) US #85 Pop, #19 AC
- 1987: "First We Take Manhattan" US #29 AC / UK #74
- 1987: "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" (duet with Bill Medley) US #1 Pop, #1 AC (Gold) / UK #6 (charted at UK #8 in a reissue in 1990)
- 1992: "Rock You Gently" US #13 AC
- 1992: "True Emotion" US #43 AC
- 1993: "The Whole Of The Moon" US #49 AC
References