"Up Where We Belong" is a Platinum-certified, Grammy Award-winning hit song written by Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Will Jennings. It was recorded by Joe Cocker (lead vocals) and Jennifer Warnes (lead and background vocals) for the smash 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman.
Richard Gere balked at shooting the ending of the film, in which Zack arrives at Paula's factory wearing his naval dress whites and carries her off the factory floor; he thought that wouldn't work because it was too sentimental. Director Taylor Hackford agreed with Gere until, during a rehearsal, the extras playing the workers began to cheer and cry. When Gere saw the scene later, with the music added ("Up Where We Belong"), he said it gave him chills. Gere is now convinced Hackford made the right decision.
Producer Don Simpson unsuccessfully demanded "Up Where We Belong" be cut from An Officer and a Gentleman, saying, "The song is no good. It isn't a hit." He reportedly said of Warnes, "She has a sweet voice, but she'll never have a hit song, and this definitely isn't it." (This overlooked the fact that Warnes had already had a hit in 1977 with "Right Time of the Night" and had another modest hit in 1979 with the song It Goes Like It Goes in the film Norma Rae, which won an Oscar. It was proven even more wrong when Warnes recorded the huge hit "I've Had The Time of My Life" only a few years later with Bill Medley for the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.) Simpson even made a bet with the film's soundtrack supervisor that the song would flop and paid off his loss after the Oscars, where he still insisted the song was rotten and that it should never have become successful.
Release and awards
However, the American Top 40 radio stations disagreed with Simpson's comments, as the single, released by Island Records in 1982, hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on November 6, 1982 and held the top chart position for three consecutive weeks, also reaching number 7 in the UK Singles Chart. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over two million copies in the United States.
"Up Where We Belong" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1983. It also won the BAFTA Film Awards for Best Original Song in 1984. Cocker and Warnes also won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1983 for their rendition of this song. In 2004 it finished at #75 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
Joe Cocker - lead vocalsJennifer Warnes - lead and background vocalsThe song was performed by Nell Carter and Andy Gibb in the Gimme a Break! episode "The Groupie".The song was featured in the 1985 Alvin and the Chipmunks episode "The Chipmunks Go to Washington", as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Chipettes.Buffy Sainte-Marie, who composed the song with Jack Nitzsche (Will Jennings wrote the lyrics), recorded the song on her Up Where We Belong album in 1996, a "songwriter's version", as she said.In The Simpsons episode "Life on the Fast Lane" the song was played during a parody of the film ending of Homer carrying Marge.The song was performed by Stewie Griffin and Bertram in the Family Guy episode "Emission Impossible". Another parody of the song was found in the show in the episode "Herpe the Love Sore".The song was featured in the South Park episode "Erection Day" as parody on final scene from film.The chorus of the song is featured in the "Elephant Love Medley" in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge!.The original 1982 version was featured in a 1987 episode of the American soap opera Santa Barbara. In the episode, the Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo characters danced to the song in a daydream sequence.Patti LaBelle performed a gospel version of the song entitled "Lord Lift Us Up Where We Belong" on her Look to the Rainbow Tour in 1985.The song was featured in Everybody Hates Chris Season 1 episode, "Everybody Hates Food Stamps".An instrumental version of the song was featured in Miranda, during the first season episode, "Job".An instrumental version of the song was used as background music for a Labour Party television ad in the 1987 New Zealand Election, featuring scenery of New Zealand and the slogan Bringing New Zealand together. An instrumental version of the song is playing over the tannoy when Michael goes to Staples to give Dwight his job back, in The Office season 3 episode 13 "The Return".The scene is spoofed in the Scrubs episode "His Story IV", in which Dr. Kelso twice has a cutaway fantasy sequence parodying the final scene.The Shadows did an instrumental version of the song in 1983, on their album XXV.Shigeru Matsuzaki did a Japanese version in 1984, entitled "愛と青春の旅だち -Up Where We Belong-". It was also used as the theme song of a TBS-Based TV Drama "Fukei-san Ha Majo".Cocker performed the song with Joan Baez singing Warnes' lines in the 1986 TV special '60s Reunion at the Fillmore.Frank Galan & Sandra Kim did a Dutch version in 1997, entitled "De liefde neemt ons mee".Bebe Winans & Cece Winans did a version of the song in 1984, on their album Lord Lift Us Up.In 2004, Glen Campbell recorded the song on his album Love Is the Answer: 24 Songs of Faith, Hope and Love.Namibian singer Nianell and South African singer Dozi did a version of the song in 2009 on their album It Takes Two.Filipino singer Christian Bautista also covered this song from the GMA 7 Koreanovela Drama Series Empress Ki.Ted Neeley and Yvonne Elliman remade "Up Where We Belong" for Neeley's 2014 EP Rock Opera.