Biography
Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947 in Seattle, Washington and raised in Anaheim, California) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer. She is known for her interpretations of compositions written by herself and many others as well as an extensive playlist as a vocalist on movie soundtracks. She is a close friend of and collaborator with Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, Leonard Cohen.
Between 1979 and 1987, Warnes surpassed Frank Sinatra as the vocalist performing the most songs to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song (four times) and to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song (three times). Her biggest hits include "Up Where We Belong" (a duet with Joe Cocker from the 1982 film, An Officer and a Gentleman) and "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" (a duet with Bill Medley from the 1987 film, Dirty Dancing). This marked the third song performed by Warnes to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award. The song also won Warnes and Medley the Grammy Award for Duo or Group with Vocal. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Bill Medley
William Thomas Medley (born September 19, 1940, Los Angeles, California) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers.
Medley met his singing partner Bobby Hatfield while attending California State University, Long Beach. The pair began singing as a duo in 1962. Their first single was "Little Latin Lupe Lu"; their first hit was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced by Phil Spector in 1964. Follow-up hits included "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" and "Unchained Melody". The duo broke up in 1968, but returned with another hit in 1974, "Rock And Roll Heaven", and they continued to appear together until Hatfield's death in November 2003. The Righteous Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003 by one of their biggest fans, Billy Joel.
Medley also had a moderately successful solo career. In 1968, he released "Peace, Brother, Peace" and "Brown Eyed Woman" both of which were Top 40 Pop hits. In 1969, he won 2nd place at the Festival Internacional da Cançao (FIC) in Rio de Janeiro, with the song "Evie", by Jimmy Webb. He also released several solo albums during the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1984 and 1985, he charted 5 singles on the country charts with the biggest of these being the Top 20 country hit, "I Still Do". In 1987 his duet with Jennifer Warnes, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", was included on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack album, and the single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song won Medley and Warnes a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the composers. Among his other notable songs are "Most of All You", the closing theme to the movie Major League; "Friday Night's A Great Night For Football" from Tony Scott's movie, The Last Boy Scout; and the theme song for the Growing Pains spinoff, Just The Ten of Us.
