Jennifer Warnes

Singer/songwriter Jennifer Warnes has enjoyed enormous crossover success not only on the pop and country music charts alike, but also for her often exceptional song contributions to several hit movies. Jennifer was born on March 3, 1947 in Seattle, Washington and raised in Anaheim, California. She made her public debut singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium at age 9. After graduating from high school Warnes was offered an opera scholarship to Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, but turned said scholarship down to perform folk music with singer Doug Rowell at various Southern California folk clubs in the 60's. The duo opened for such people as Jackson Browne, Steve Martin, Jose Feliciano, and Pat Paulsen.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, singer and occasional actress "Jennifer Warnes" was known professionally on television and on her recordings as "Jennifer," and sometimes as "Jennifer Warren" (a name suggested by her agent). By the mid-1970s, she changed her professional name to her birth name, "Jennifer Warnes" because the actress "Jennifer Warren" had by that time gotten the right to use the name professionally.

Jennifer was a regular on the hugely popular TV variety program "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and had a lead role in the 1968 Los Angeles stage production of the smash hippie counterculture musical "Hair. " Her first three albums were all commercial flops.

In 1970 Jennifer met acclaimed Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen; she has sung on six albums altogether with Cohen and recorded in 1987 the highly praised "Famous Blue Raincoat," an album of all Cohen songs that's widely regarded as Warnes' crowning achievement as both a singer and top interpreter of Cohen's work. She has sung on recordings for such artists as Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Roy Orbison, Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Sam & Dave, Bobby Womack, and Tina Turner. Warnes sang the Oscar-winning theme song "It Goes Like It Goes" for the film "Norma Rae. " "Up Where We Belong," her duet with Joe Cocker and the love theme for the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman," was a huge hit: It peaked on the Pop Charts at #1 for three weeks straight and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. "(I Had) The Time of My Life," another duet with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers and the love theme for the blockbuster film "Dirty Dancing," peaked at #1 on the pop charts for four weeks, sold over a million copies, and once again won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Jennifer's rendition of the Randy Newman composition "One More Hour" for the picture "Ragtime" was nominated for an Oscar. Warnes' songs have been featured on the soundtracks to such films as "Corky Romano," "Life With Mikey," "When Harry Met Sally," "Blind Date," "Twilight Zone: The Movie," and "Bad Boys.

However, Warnes hit her stride with the sultry tune "(It's the) Right Time of the Night," which peaked at #1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles charts in 1977. The follow-up song "I Know a Heartache When I See One" was a Top Ten country hit and cracked the Top Forty pop charts as well.

Performed in four songs that were Oscar nominated for the Best Original Song category and three of those songs won the award. Winners: "It Goes like it Goes" from Norma Rae (1979), "Up Where we Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and "I've Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing (1987). The only one who lost was "One More Hour" from Ragtime (1981).