Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes – Up Where We Belong

“Up Where We Belong” – Single by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes from the album An Officer and a Gentleman
B-side: “Sweet Lil’ Woman” (Cocker)
Released: July 22, 1982
Recorded: Los Angeles, 1982
Label: Island
Composers: Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie
Lyricist: Will Jennings
Producer: Stewart Levine
Charted No.1 in US and No.7 in UK

This was written for the movie An Officer And A Gentleman, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1983. The film is known for its closing scene, where Richard Gere, dressed in his Navy uniform, comes into the factory where Debra Winger is working, gets hot and heavy with her, then carries her out as her co-workers cheer. It’s perhaps the most famous “sweeps her off her feet” archetype in film.

The movie ends with a still frame of Winger in Gere’s arms as the credits roll and “Up Where We Belong” plays.
The entire process – from idea to inclusion in the movie and release – took only 30 days. Will Jennings wrote the lyrics.

Some radio stations refused to play “Up Where We Belong”, even going so far as to send their copies back to Island Records. Cocker said, “I remember going into their offices in New York. I walked in and I said, ‘How’s the single doing?’ And this guy Mike Abrahams, who worked there, he said, ‘This is how well it’s doing’—and the office was piled with returns.” The single may have been recorded to promote the film, but Warnes pointed out that, in a sense, the success of the film was what sold the record.

“Up Where We Belong” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the issue dated August 21 of that year and spent 3 weeks at number one during its 23 weeks there. That same issue also marked its first appearance on the magazine’s list of the 50 most popular Adult Contemporary songs in the US, where it stayed for 25 weeks, 6 of which were at its peak position at number three. It also reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart in 1983[24] and received a Gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on January 6, 2023, for reaching sales and streams of 400,000 units. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded the song both Gold and Platinum certification for achieving sales of 500,000 and one million copies, respectively, on January 17, 1989.
Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes is the theme song for the 1982 film “An Officer and a Gentleman”.

On January 29, 1983, Jennings, Nitzsche, and Sainte-Marie won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Cocker and Warnes won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals on February 23 of that year. Two months later, on April 11, the songwriters won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. They also won the BAFTA film award for Best Original Song in 1984. On the Songs of the Century list compiled by the RIAA in 2001, the song was listed at number 323. In 2004, it finished at number 75 on AFI’s 100 Years … 100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema, and in 2016, one of the duo’s live renditions of the song was listed at number 18 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 20 Greatest Best Song Oscar Performances. In 2020, it was included on Billboard magazine’s list of the 25 Greatest Love Song Duets.

This music video adds some fighter jet scenes from Top Gun (1986) to accentuate the lyrics.