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Music

Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes – “Up Where We Belong”

by Kaye Bassett Millar

Published August 12, 2016

Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

“Up Where We Belong” is the theme song to the movie An Officer And A Gentleman. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1983. The movie is certainly a classic and the song goes along with the film perfectly. Let’s find out about the creation of the tune.

The entire process – from idea to inclusion in the movie and release – took only 30 days. Will Jennings wrote the lyrics. He’s responsible for the words to many famous songs, including “My Heart Will Go On,” “Looks Like We Made It,” and many of Steve Winwood’s hits.

Related:

  1. Joe Cocker : ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’
  2. Joe Cocker: “Cry me a River”
up where we belong
Flickr: badgreeb RECORDS-
up where we belong

Jennings told us: “Joel Sill, who was head of the music department of Paramount, asked me to consider writing a song for this film. I watched a rough cut, loved the film and I heard enough parts to make up a song. I asked Joel to send me the work track and I stitched together the verse, chorus, and bridge of the song and wrote the lyrics… Joel sent it to Stewart Levine, a fine music producer, and Stewart and I talked the song over on the phone and he went in to the studio and cut the hit track with Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.”

RELATED: Joe Cocker: “Cry me a River”

Will Jennings told us about coming up with the words to this song: “I am a working class person and these people in the film trying to make it, they are my people. The mountain imagery is about striving for the top – people often don’t hear the lyric right – it is ‘Where eagles cry, on a mountain high’ instead of ‘Where eagles fly, on a mountain high’ – if you have ever heard an eagle cry, the power and beauty of it and all the wild freedom of it, you will get the distinction. As far as “All I know is the way I feel…’ well, if you have nothing else to tell you what to do in your life, you have to go with the way you feel… if you are lost, you have only your instinct and passion to guide you.”

(source)

Lyrics from this Academy Award Winning Song

Who knows what tomorrow brings
In a world few hearts survive
All I know is the way I feel
When it’s real, I keep it alive

The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb a step every day

Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world below
Up where the clear winds blow

Some hang on to used to be
Live their lives looking behind
All we have is here and now
All our lives, out there to find

The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb a step every day

Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know
Where the clear winds blow

Time goes by
No time to cry
Life’s you and I
Alive today

Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know
Where the clear winds blow

Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong

The below clip is much older, unfortunately, Joe was ill during the performance. It is still beautiful.

And finally, a clip from An Officer and a Gentleman:

RELATED: How Much Each Artist Earned From Playing Woodstock

Next up: Tid-Bits About the Song ‘To Know Him Is to Love Him’ by The Teddy Bears

 

Previous article: Tid-Bits About the Song ‘To Know Him Is to Love Him’ by The Teddy Bears
Next Post: DYR Today, August 13

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