"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 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 song added, he said it gave him chills. Gere was later 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 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.

Watch the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman"

"Up Where We Belong"
Single by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
from the album An Officer and a Gentlemansoundtrack
B-side	"Sweet Lil' Woman" (Joe Cocker)
Released	31 August 1982
Format	45rpm, CD, Cassette
Recorded	1982
Length	4:00 (7") / 3:55 (album)
Label	Island
Songwriter(s)	Jack Nitzsche Buffy Sainte-Marie Will Jennings
Producer(s)	Stewart Levine
Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes singles chronology