DEF: Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes “Up Where We Belong”

One of the most iconic scenes among 1980s cinema comes at the end of the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman when Zack Mayo (played by Richard Gere) walks into the factory where Paula Pokrifki (played by Debra Winger) is working, kisses her, and carries her out in happily-ever-after fashion to an instrumental version of the song “Up Where We Belong.” The film stops on Zack carrying Paula away, and the credits roll to a vocal version of the song, sung by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. That version by Cocker and Warnes was released as a single, and exactly 35 years ago, it climbed to number one on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for a three-week reign. To commemorate that anniversary, “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes is today’s Daily Eighties Flashback.