Biography
An American vocalist, composer, orchestrator, and studio producer, Jennifer Warnes has earned both Grammy and Academy Awards for her work. Her clear alto has allowed her to excel across multiple realms of mainstream music, from contemporary pop and country material to hit film themes, while establishing her as perhaps the most attuned and definitive interpreter of Leonard Cohen’s compositions, a reputation cemented by the 1986 album Famous Blue Raincoat, which contains only his songs and remains a career landmark. She is likewise a sought-after session singer. Although she entered the business in the late 1960s and has periodically stepped away for extended periods, she continues to contribute background vocals, write songs, and release recordings.
Born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in Anaheim, California, Warnes received her first recording contract at age seven, an offer her father declined. She nurtured her musical interests through church singing and local talent contests and pageants before attending college on a music scholarship. Though trained in opera, she initially pursued folk music, drawn to the Greenwich Village milieu that launched Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Bob Dylan. To sustain her ambitions she accepted any available work in musical theater, clubs, and coffeehouses. In 1967 she auditioned successfully for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, joining the regular cast as Jennifer Warren and gaining her first widespread recognition as a singer. She secured her initial record contract in 1968 with Parrot, releasing the debut album I Can Remember Everything, which failed to chart; a year later she issued See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me on the same label, with similarly modest results. Two years afterward she moved to Reprise Records. In 1971 John Cale produced her third album, Jennifer, and introduced her to Cohen, who became a close friend and recurring collaborator until his death on November 7, 2016. She toured with him as a backing vocalist during the 1970s and eventually appeared on six of his albums.
Warnes joined Arista Records under Clive Davis in 1976. Her 1977 single “Right Time of the Night” reached the pop Top Ten, topped the easy-listening chart, and crossed over into the country Top 40; the track appeared on her Arista debut album, Jennifer Warnes. The follow-up, Shot Through the Heart (1979), contained “I Know a Heartache When I See One,” a Top Ten country hit that also reached the pop and easy-listening Top 40. Her next Arista release was a greatest-hits collection that concluded her contract. The single “It Goes Like It Goes,” featured in the 1979 film Norma Rae, preceded her first Oscar win, awarded in 1981 for performing Randy Newman’s “One More Hour” in Ragtime. She signed with Island in July 1982 and issued “Up Where We Belong,” a duet with Joe Cocker that served as the theme for An Officer and a Gentleman; the platinum-certified track reached number one, earned an Oscar, and won a Golden Globe. Thereafter she became a preferred voice for motion-picture soundtracks, charting with “Nights Are Forever” from Twilight Zone: The Movie and the title duet with Chris Thompson from All the Right Moves. In 1985 she recorded the duet “As Long as We’ve Got Each Other” with B.J. Thomas for the Growing Pains theme, and that same year sang with composer and cellist Arthur Russell on material later released as Calling Out of Context. In 1986 she became the first artist signed to the short-lived Cypress label and, early the following year, released the Roscoe Beck-produced Famous Blue Raincoat, which yielded the Top 30 single “First We Take Manhattan” featuring guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and issued before Cohen himself recorded the song. She also contributed to Warren Zevon’s Sentimental Hygiene. In July, RCA issued the duet “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers for the Dirty Dancing soundtrack; the gold-certified number-one single likewise won an Oscar and a Golden Globe. That September she appeared in the all-star television special Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night. Five years elapsed before her next album, The Hunter, arrived in 1992; it included her own songs and covers, produced the number-three single “Rock You Gently,” and featured the non-single track “Way Down Deep,” co-written with Cohen. She returned to film work with “Cold Enough to Snow” for the 1993 movie Life with Mikey.
A decade passed without a new Warnes album, though she remained active on soundtracks and continued her association with Cohen. In 2001 she released The Well, widely regarded as one of her strongest recordings. The project featured an all-star ensemble including Doyle Bramhall II, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Dean Parks; she wrote or co-wrote five of its eleven songs and handled arrangements ranging from strings to background vocals. The covers included the Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold standard “You Don’t Know Me,” Tom Waits’s “Invitation to the Blues,” Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” and Arlo Guthrie’s “Patriot’s Dream.” Issued on an independent label, the album received airplay at Americana radio but did not appear on the pop or country charts. Warnes paused to care for her mother, who died in 2003, after which she felt little inclination to sing and largely withdrew from public view while still collaborating with Cohen. She made selective appearances on albums by longtime associates including John Prine, Chris Hillman, and Jude Johnstone. Listeners relied on these guest spots, compilations, and reissues, among them reissues of albums by Arthur Russell and Bert Jansch, the latter containing her vocals from his 1982 release Heartbreak. In 2013 RCA Japan reissued Jennifer.
In 2015 Warnes reunited with Beck after fourteen years to begin a new recording. She faced a series of personal losses that temporarily halted progress: two sisters died within a week, her manager perished in a car accident, a former boyfriend with whom she had remained close passed away, and her dog died as well. Recorded in Texas and Los Angeles with another distinguished group of session musicians, many of whom had appeared on The Well, the album featured covers of songs by John Legend, Lonnie Johnson, Mickey Newbury, and Eddie Vedder among others. Another Time, Another Place was released by BMG in April 2018.
Born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in Anaheim, California, Warnes received her first recording contract at age seven, an offer her father declined. She nurtured her musical interests through church singing and local talent contests and pageants before attending college on a music scholarship. Though trained in opera, she initially pursued folk music, drawn to the Greenwich Village milieu that launched Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Bob Dylan. To sustain her ambitions she accepted any available work in musical theater, clubs, and coffeehouses. In 1967 she auditioned successfully for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, joining the regular cast as Jennifer Warren and gaining her first widespread recognition as a singer. She secured her initial record contract in 1968 with Parrot, releasing the debut album I Can Remember Everything, which failed to chart; a year later she issued See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me on the same label, with similarly modest results. Two years afterward she moved to Reprise Records. In 1971 John Cale produced her third album, Jennifer, and introduced her to Cohen, who became a close friend and recurring collaborator until his death on November 7, 2016. She toured with him as a backing vocalist during the 1970s and eventually appeared on six of his albums.
Warnes joined Arista Records under Clive Davis in 1976. Her 1977 single “Right Time of the Night” reached the pop Top Ten, topped the easy-listening chart, and crossed over into the country Top 40; the track appeared on her Arista debut album, Jennifer Warnes. The follow-up, Shot Through the Heart (1979), contained “I Know a Heartache When I See One,” a Top Ten country hit that also reached the pop and easy-listening Top 40. Her next Arista release was a greatest-hits collection that concluded her contract. The single “It Goes Like It Goes,” featured in the 1979 film Norma Rae, preceded her first Oscar win, awarded in 1981 for performing Randy Newman’s “One More Hour” in Ragtime. She signed with Island in July 1982 and issued “Up Where We Belong,” a duet with Joe Cocker that served as the theme for An Officer and a Gentleman; the platinum-certified track reached number one, earned an Oscar, and won a Golden Globe. Thereafter she became a preferred voice for motion-picture soundtracks, charting with “Nights Are Forever” from Twilight Zone: The Movie and the title duet with Chris Thompson from All the Right Moves. In 1985 she recorded the duet “As Long as We’ve Got Each Other” with B.J. Thomas for the Growing Pains theme, and that same year sang with composer and cellist Arthur Russell on material later released as Calling Out of Context. In 1986 she became the first artist signed to the short-lived Cypress label and, early the following year, released the Roscoe Beck-produced Famous Blue Raincoat, which yielded the Top 30 single “First We Take Manhattan” featuring guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and issued before Cohen himself recorded the song. She also contributed to Warren Zevon’s Sentimental Hygiene. In July, RCA issued the duet “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers for the Dirty Dancing soundtrack; the gold-certified number-one single likewise won an Oscar and a Golden Globe. That September she appeared in the all-star television special Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night. Five years elapsed before her next album, The Hunter, arrived in 1992; it included her own songs and covers, produced the number-three single “Rock You Gently,” and featured the non-single track “Way Down Deep,” co-written with Cohen. She returned to film work with “Cold Enough to Snow” for the 1993 movie Life with Mikey.
A decade passed without a new Warnes album, though she remained active on soundtracks and continued her association with Cohen. In 2001 she released The Well, widely regarded as one of her strongest recordings. The project featured an all-star ensemble including Doyle Bramhall II, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Dean Parks; she wrote or co-wrote five of its eleven songs and handled arrangements ranging from strings to background vocals. The covers included the Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold standard “You Don’t Know Me,” Tom Waits’s “Invitation to the Blues,” Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” and Arlo Guthrie’s “Patriot’s Dream.” Issued on an independent label, the album received airplay at Americana radio but did not appear on the pop or country charts. Warnes paused to care for her mother, who died in 2003, after which she felt little inclination to sing and largely withdrew from public view while still collaborating with Cohen. She made selective appearances on albums by longtime associates including John Prine, Chris Hillman, and Jude Johnstone. Listeners relied on these guest spots, compilations, and reissues, among them reissues of albums by Arthur Russell and Bert Jansch, the latter containing her vocals from his 1982 release Heartbreak. In 2013 RCA Japan reissued Jennifer.
In 2015 Warnes reunited with Beck after fourteen years to begin a new recording. She faced a series of personal losses that temporarily halted progress: two sisters died within a week, her manager perished in a car accident, a former boyfriend with whom she had remained close passed away, and her dog died as well. Recorded in Texas and Los Angeles with another distinguished group of session musicians, many of whom had appeared on The Well, the album featured covers of songs by John Legend, Lonnie Johnson, Mickey Newbury, and Eddie Vedder among others. Another Time, Another Place was released by BMG in April 2018.
Albums
The Hunter
2021
Another Time, Another Place
2018
Platinum & Gold Collection
2004
The Well
2001
Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition (Digitally Remastered)
1986
Best Of Jennifer Warnes
1982
Shot Through The Heart
1979
Jennifer Warnes
1977
Singles
