We're In This Love Together

Al Jarreau: "We're in This Love Together" and the Jazz Voice on Pop Radio

Jazz Royalty Approaching a New Audience

Al Jarreau was already one of the most celebrated vocal technicians in jazz when the early 1980s found him at a crossroads between artistic purity and commercial possibility. His abilities were not in question: a voice of extraordinary range and flexibility, capable of mimicking instruments, sliding between registers with fluid ease, and bringing a jazz musician's improvisational instinct to every phrase. What was in question was whether that voice could find a home on pop radio without sacrificing the qualities that made it special. The answer arrived in the summer of 1981 in the form of a song that remains one of the most endearing pop singles of the entire decade.

The Sound of "We're in This Love Together"

The track is a masterclass in the art of making sophisticated music feel effortless. The production, built on a light rhythmic foundation with delicate synthesizer textures and a melody that moves with the unhurried confidence of a man who has nothing to prove, creates a space where Jarreau's voice can do what it does best: articulate, embellish, play. His phrasing on the song is a joy to follow, the way each syllable is handled with care but never stiffness, the way he finds unexpected paths through lines that lesser singers would deliver straight. The song was written by Jay Graydon and David Foster, a pairing responsible for some of the most polished, adult-oriented pop of the era, and their craft is evident in every bar.

An Eighteen-Week Journey to the Top Twenty

The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on August 1, 1981, at number 88, at the height of the summer. Its climb was patient and steady, the kind of chart movement that happens when radio programmers fall genuinely in love with a record and keep returning to it. The song moved through the fall, gaining momentum as adult contemporary stations embraced it fully. By November 7, 1981, it had reached its peak of number 15, an impressive showing for a jazz vocalist on a chart dominated by rock, new wave, and pop. The 24-week chart run was remarkable for any record in that era, evidence of sustained audience engagement rather than a single promotional surge.

Grammy Recognition and Genre-Crossing Legacy

The song earned Jarreau a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, which was both a recognition of the specific achievement and a marker of the unusual territory he was navigating. He was a jazz artist winning pop awards while remaining wholly himself, not simplifying his approach but rather finding a context where that approach could reach a wider audience. That achievement was significant precisely because it was not a compromise. The jazz sensibility that defined Jarreau's artistry remained audible on every note of the song; what changed was the delivery vehicle, not the driver. Few musicians in any era have managed that crossing without losing something essential on one side or the other, and the Grammy was, among other things, the industry's recognition that Jarreau had managed it with uncommon grace.

A Song That Sounds Like Sunday Morning

More than four decades on, "We're in This Love Together" retains an almost physical warmth. It sounds like a Sunday morning when nothing needs to happen urgently, like the kind of contentment that is too calm to shout about and too real to keep entirely quiet. Jarreau's voice, in its prime on this recording, is both technically astonishing and emotionally direct in a way that transcends genre labels. Whatever category you use to file it away, press play and feel how the song inhabits a room.

"We're in This Love Together" — Al Jarreau's singular moment on the 1980s charts.