1980s
Warnes recorded the Randy Newman composition "One More Hour" for the 1981 motion picture Ragtime. This became her second performance of a song to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Warnes teamed up with Joe Cocker to record "Up Where We Belong" for the 1982 motion picture An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Buffy Sainte-Marie, Will Jennings and Jack Nitzsche, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as a Golden Globe Award. The song also won Warnes and Cocker the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The million-selling Gold-certified 45 was released as a single and hit No. 1 (for three weeks running) on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and stands as Jennifer's biggest selling disc being certified 'Platinum' for over two million sales in the United States alone. The same year, she recorded a moving performance of James Taylor's Millworker for the American Playhouse PBS production of Working.
Warnes teamed up with Bill Medley to record "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" for the 1987 motion picture 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.
On September 30, 1987, at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, she contributed background vocals for Roy Orbison's star-studded television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night.
She recorded a duet version with B. J. Thomas of the song "As Long As We've Got Each Other", the theme for the TV show Growing Pains. It was used as the opening theme until the fourth season, when the song was once again re-recorded with Thomas and Dusty Springfield. However, it made its return for the fifth and final seasons of the show.
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