Jennifer

Artist: Jennifer

LP: I Can Remember Everything

Song: "Sunny Day Blue"
[ listen ]

A few weekends ago I helped a friend move from Ballard to Kirkland, and afterwards I figured I'd stop by the Half-Price Books store located in nearby Bellevue. As I was looking up the address on my phone, a new and surprising blip appeared on my radar—a record store in Kirkland! I figured it would probably be one of those poorly-stocked suburban record stores that have way too many overpriced copies of old Richard Marx LPs, but I was wrong. Vortex Music & Movies is stuffed to the gills with so much interesting stock it's impossible to rummage through everything in a single visit. Owner Daren Compton (who was there when I stopped by—very friendly guy) has been collecting records for decades and had always dreamed of owning a record store...so, voila! You can read more about Daren and his Vortex on the Kirkland Reporter website here. 

This mysterious hippie record by Jennifer is one of the things I found in Kirkland on that fateful summer day. A bit of amateur online sleuthing this evening led to a cascade of startling revelations: This LP is the 1968 debut of Jennifer Warnes, the same lady who sang "Up Where We Belong," the love theme from AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, which I performed with Jessica at the West Valley Junior High talent show in 1983! Not only that, but Jennifer was born right here in Seattle, and she's best friends with Leonard Cohen! Further shocking revelations about the artist formerly known as "Jennifer" can be found on Wikipedia right here.

 

[ Jennifer Warnes, nowadays-ish ]

[ Vortex Music & Movies — Kirkland, Washington ]