"Up Where We Belong" is a song from the 1982 film
An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Jack Nitzsche and
Buffy Sainte-Marie, with lyrics by Will Jennings, it was
performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.
The single, released by Island Records in 1982, became a
number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on November 6, 1982
and kept the position for three weeks, also reaching number 7
in the UK, where the film was less popular.
"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.
The song's composer, Buffy Sainte-Marie, did a cover of the
song for her album
Up Where We Belongand the TV special of the same
name.
Producer Don Simpson unsuccessfully demanded "Up Where We
Belong" to be cut from
An Officer and a Gentleman, saying, "The song is no
good. It isn't a hit."
The song was part of the
An Officer and a GentlemanOriginal Soundtrack, and was
later released as part of
The Best of Joe Cocker(1993).
In 1991, it was re-released as a Jennifer Warnes CD-single
alongside "First We Take Manhattan" and "(I've Had) The Time of
My Life".
The song also featured in the TV advertising campaign for
Rover's 200 Series range on its launch in 1989.