Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen

Jennifer Warnes's best-known songs for general listeners are ‘Up Where We Belong,’ her duet with Joe Cocker, and ‘(I've Had) The Time of My Life,’ with Bill Medley; both won Academy Awards for Best Original Song. On her own, she took Peter McCann's ‘Right Time of the Night’ into the American Top 10 in 1976. But her representative album is surely this collection of Leonard Cohen's songs.

Born in Seattle in 1947, she released her debut through Parrot Records in 1968 under the name Jennifer. She met Cohen in 1971 and subsequently took part in his tours and albums. Alongside Cohen himself, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Van Dyke Parks appear here. It includes songs jointly written by Jennifer and Cohen as well as material Cohen wrote for the record. Conveying the depth of Cohen's work, Jennifer sings with her own interpretations, while the playing and recording are also first-rate.