Jennifer Warnes

Pop singer Jennifer Warnes scored two chart-topping US hits with songs from ’80s movie soundtracks: “Up Where We Belong” and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.” • Warnes first stepped into the spotlight as part of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour cast in the late ’60s. • Featuring a Top 10 cover of Peter McCann’s country-pop ballad “The Right Time of Night,” Warnes’ self-titled 1976 fourth album nearly slipped into the Top 40. • The singer made her first successful foray into film soundtrack work by singing “It Goes Like It Goes” for the 1979 film Norma Rae. It won songwriters David Shire and Norman Gimbel an Oscar for Best Original Song. Warnes went on to sing the Oscar-nominated “One More Hour” for 1981’s Ragtime. • Due to her previous soundtrack experience, Warnes was recommended for “Up Where We Belong,” for 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman. Warnes suggested Joe Cocker as a duet partner, and the resulting song reached No. 1 in the US and earned a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. “Up Where We Belong” also took home an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. • After Donna Summer and Joe Esposito reportedly turned it down, Warnes and Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers recorded “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” for 1987’s Dirty Dancing. It topped the charts en route to winning an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, plus a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. • Warnes is heard alongside B.J. Thomas on the theme song to the sitcom Growing Pains.