Jennifer Warnes

Jennifer Jean Warnes is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer. She is known for her interpretations of compositions written by herself and many others as well as an extensive playlist as a vocalist on movie soundtracks. She is a close friend of and collaborator with Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, Leonard Cohen. Warnes was born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in Anaheim, California. 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-1960s. 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 year, she joined the cast of the television show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Early in her career, industry advisors suggested she change her name to “Warren”, but then realized that there was already an actress named Jennifer Warren, so she performed for a short time under the single name “Jennifer”, but soon returned to using her birth name “Warnes". In November 1968, Warnes (as "Jennifer Warren") portrayed the female lead in the Los Angeles, California production of the stage musical Hair. She had a related UK single release as "Jennifer" on London HLU 10278 in June 1969 with "Let The Sunshine In" c/w "Easy To Be Hard", licensed from US Parrot label. In 1971, she met Canadian songwriter and poet, Leonard Cohen, and the two have remained lifelong friends. She would eventually tour Europe with Cohen's band in 1972 and 1979, first as a back-up singer and then as a vocal arranger and guest singer on Cohen's albums Live Songs (1973), Recent Songs (1979), Various Positions (1985), I'm Your Man (1988), The Future (1992), Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 (2001), and Old Ideas (2012). Warnes would later (1987) record a critically acclaimed audiophile album of Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat. In 1972, she released her third album, Jennifer, which was produced by John Cale and has yet to be reissued. In 1976 Warnes released the album which would contain her breakthrough single, "Right Time of the Night", hitting No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in April 1977 and No. 6 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in May 1977. Warnes recorded the song, "It Goes Like It Goes", for the 1979 motion picture, Norma Rae. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her 1979 single, "I Know A Heartache When I See One", was a Top 10 Country hit and reached the Top 20 on both the Pop and Adult Contemporary charts. Warnes recorded the Randy Newman composition "One More Hour" for the 1981 motion picture Ragtime. This became her second performance of a song to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Warnes teamed up with Joe Cocker to record "Up Where We Belong" for the 1982 motion picture An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Buffy Sainte-Marie, Will Jennings and Jack Nitzsche, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as a Golden Globe Award. The song also won Warnes and Cocker the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The million-selling Gold-certified 45 was released as a single and hit No. 1 (for three weeks running) on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and stands as Jennifer's biggest selling disc being certified 'Platinum' for over two million sales in the United States alone. The same year, she recorded a moving performance of James Taylor's Millworker for the American Playhouse PBS production of Working.

Warnes teamed up with Bill Medley to record "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" for the 1987 motion picture Dirty Dancing. This marked the third song performed by Warnes to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award. The song also won Warnes and Medley the Grammy Award for Duo or Group with Vocal. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

On September 30, 1987, at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, she contributed background vocals for Roy Orbison's star-studded television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night.

She recorded a duet version with B. J. Thomas of the song "As Long As We've Got Each Other", the theme for the TV show Growing Pains. It was used as the opening theme until the fourth season, when the song was once again re-recorded with Thomas and Dusty Springfield. However, it made its return for the fifth and final seasons of the show.

In 1985, she contributed vocals for Leonard Cohen's record Various Positions, getting equal vocals credits with Cohen in the inside booklet. After releasing praised tribute LP of Leonard Cohen's songs in 1987, Famous Blue Raincoat, to which Cohen contributed two new compositions, "First We Take Manhattan" and "Ain't No Cure for Love", she vocally contributed to Cohen's 1988 hit LP I'm Your Man, most notably to "Take This Waltz" and Cohen's signature song "Tower of Song". 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. The Hunter was re-released in 2009, and The Well was re-released in September 2010.

All remasters were issued on high quality vinyl and 24K Gold discs. "Famous Blue Raincoat" was released with 4 bonus tracks. "The Hunter" was released without bonus material. The re-released "The Well," however, contains a total of 14 tracks. These include two recordings from the original session that had never before been heard publicly: "La Luna Brilla", "A Fool for the Look (in Your Eyes", and one extra bonus selection, "Show Me the Light" (a second duet with Bill Medley which was originally featured on the 1998 movie soundtrack "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer-The Movie").

Warnes has contributed to tribute recordings to Ian Tyson, Warren Zevon and Alejandro Escovedo. In 2009, she conducted a much awaited tour of the west and northwest, and was in top vocal form singing CD favorites and new material. In 2010, Warnes started work on a new solo recording of original and cover songs at Capitol Records. The title of this album had not been revealed as of June 2010, nor had a release date for it been announced by that time. In September 2011, Warnes toured Canada. In September - October 2012, she is touring selected venues in Canada and the U.S.