A celebration of the great Joe Cocker in 5 magical moments

James Brinsford for Metro.co.ukMonday 22 Dec 2014 8:41 pm

A celebration of the great Joe Cocker in 5 magical moments — Joe Cocker has died aged 70 (Picture; REX)

The great rock and blues singer Joe Cocker had died at the age of 70 after battling with lung cancer.
He has been one of the greatest artists go his generation and one of the few people that covered a Beatles song and come out of it with credit.
He was known for his gritty voice and had success as a solo artist and with high profile collaborations, as well as being honoured by the Queen for services to music.
In a celebration of his life, here are five magical moments from his life and career.
MORE: Joe Cocker dies at the age of 70
1. A Little Help From His Friends
It is always difficult to come out of covering a Beatles song without ruining your career and very rare to actually make it one of the songs that you will always be remembered for.
Joe Cocker took a great risk in reworking a classic to such a degree that it almost went unnoticed as a cover until the song really got going.
He made it slower and used different chords and used a supergroup to record it with Jimmy Page on guitar and Procol Harum’s BJ Wilson on drums.
It was voted as the seventh best cover version ever in a BBC poll and his live version at Woodstock was a mainstay of the concert film.
This version of the song was also the one that was inducted in to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
2. A Grammy heads his way
Putting into practice what he preached on With a Little Help From His Friends, Joe Cocker enlisted the help of Jennifer Warnes for Up Where we Belong to record a song for the soundtrack of An Officer and a Gentlemen.
It proved to be one of his most popular songs as it sold over two million copies in the United States and was a Top Ten hit in the UK during 1982.
The icing on the cake came when the song gathered a whole host of awards that included a Golden Globe, BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
3. A star of Woodstock
While touring the United States in 1969 playing at folk and blues festivals, Joe Cocker got wind of a huge concert that was being planned at Woodstock.
A last minute decision to play meant that he and his band had to be flown on to the site by helicopter due to the huge crowd.
It proved to be one of his best career moves as his performance is one of legend and Joe Cocker himself described the experience as ‘like an eclipse … it was a very special day’.
4. Honoured by the Queen

It was quite some journey for Joe Cocker that took him from his childhood in Sheffield, Yorkshire to Buckingham Palace for an OBE from the Queen.
It all started for him as a twelve year old listening to Ray Charles records and singing in his brother’s skiffle band.
It could have been all so different though as when Joe left school he became a gasfitter. Fortunately his music career had a steeper upward trajectory and he was on his way to stardom.
5. A beautiful song
It can be hot work performing ‘You are so Beautiful’ unplugged for German TV back in the nighties but this didn’t stop Joe Cocker from bringing one of his most delicate songs to the masses.
The song was written by Beatles collaborator Billy Preston but Joe was the one that popularised it as it went in to the Top 5 of the US Billboard and was his biggest hit until he hooked up with Jennifer Warnes.

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