Joe Cocker, British soul singer, dies at 70

Both men are gone now. John Belushi died of an overdose in 1982, and Joe Cocker passed away Monday. According to his agent Barrie Marshall, the 70-year-old Grammy-winning rock legend succumbed to lung cancer at his Mad Dog Ranch in Crawford, Colorado. Marshall went on to describe Cocker as “simply unique,” adding, “it will be impossible to fill the space he leaves in our hearts.”

Perhaps best known from the 1969 Woodstock festival for his blistering cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” — one vocal fill was just an extended, cathartic scream — Cocker sustained an excellent career. He scored major successes with his 1970 version of “You Are So Beautiful to Me” and 1982’s “Up Where We Belong,” a duet with Jennifer Warnes. His 2010 album, “Hard Knocks,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. Cocker was honored with an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2007.

“It’s really sad to hear about Joe’s passing,” former Beatle Paul McCartney said in a tribute. “He was a lovely northern lad who I loved a lot and, like many people, I loved his singing. I was especially pleased when he decided to cover “With A Little Help From My Friends.” 

McCartney remembered when Cocker and his producer came by to play him their recording, describing it as “just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful for him doing that.”

John Robert Cocker was born in Sheffield, England, in 1944. He started singing in the pub and club circuit of South Yorkshire in the 1960s, while working as a gas fitter.

"A lot of people have asked me over the years why the north of England was so prone to R&B,” he said in an interview. “It was odd, but most of the bands out of Sheffield and Newcastle never wrote songs. We'd cover Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Ray Charles, of course ... And so we all started singing like black blues singers.”

Cocker stood out, even in this crowded field. 

It was while touring his first album, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” that Cocker gave his famous Woodstock performance, making his version of the Lennon/McCartney song of the same name shoot to the top of the charts.

“It was pretty early in the day, as I recall, and the crowd was all doing other things until we did ‘Let’s All Get Stoned,’ the old Ray Charles number,” Cocker remembered. “If you look at the film, we did a pretty good job with ‘A Little Help From My Friends.’”

The following year he embarked on what became the notorious Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour that featured Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge — and was famed for its excesses as much as its performances. “I was living on a liquid diet,” Cocker said of those times. As the 1970s progressed he also became addicted to heroin.

Cocker was able to turn his life and career around in the early 1980s, leading to his contribution to the Academy Award-winning soundtrack for An Officer and a Gentleman. He ultimately released close to 40 albums.

Despite his flailing stage presence, which he described as stemming from “the frustration of not being able to play” an instrument, Cocker will be primarily remembered as a soul belter of the highest order. Rolling Stone counted him among its 100 Greatest Singers.

Cocker described himself as “white soul singer.” It’s easy to see the influence, primarily of the great Ray Charles, in Cocker’s power and passion, but his grasp reached beyond rhythm and blues and soul into rock and roll.